KR Decade GEKIJOUBAN: Gaia Aftershock
by TEKNAM
Summary: Following his adventures, Kadoya Tsukasa is attacked at the Hikari studio by a Toad monster made of electricity. During the ensuing fight,he is killed and brought before a deity to obtain new life. Read on as he journeys... as Kamen Rider Gaia!.
1. AWAKEN THE EARTH!

Hey again! I've been thinking things through for a while, and have decided to put everything else on the back-burner to work on this for now. As more ideas for my existing stories come to me, I'll be taking them down on file to preserve them. So, Without further ado, the not-so revised chapter 1!  
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_**=KAMEN RIDER DECADE: GEKIJOBAN=**_

_**=GAIA AFTERSHOCK=**_

CHAPTER 1: AWAKEN THE EARTH!

_**"TSUKASA-KUN!"**_

Came the screams of three people: Onodera Yuusuke, the up-beat, always smiling bearer of the Arcle, also known as Kamen Rider Kuuga; Daiki Kaito, the phantom thief of the AR Worlds, also known as Kamen Rider DiEnd; Hikari Natsumi, his closest friend and, at one time, his killer after he became a monster, also known as Kamen Rider Kibara. The three had left the Hikari Studio with the one called Tsukasa when a strange-looking monster showed up. The monster, a yellow toad exuding large amounts of electrical charge, had referred to himself as Electron Toad, and engaged in battle with the one called Tsukasa. His full name was Kadoya Tsukasa, a free-lance shooter of strangely exotic photos, and the one to unite the worlds, Kamen Rider Decade. At first, Tsukasa had taken a close-range approach to fighting the strange kaijin, only to find that no amount of punching, kicking, or slashing with his RideBooker Sword would be enough to damage the creature without shocking himself in return. So, he'd switched up his game, turning the Sword in his hand back into a card-holding metal book, and then into a gun. _'Good,'_ Tsukasa had thought, _'now I can take him out with little trouble. Electric or not, he can't shock me if I don't touch him, right?'_ He'd been proven wrong as the monster had proceeded to fire off thunder bolts at the Rider. Tsukasa backed up several feet and fired away, hitting the monster with shot after shot. His last few rounds, invoked by the card "Attack Ride: Blast", had caused the beast to misfire, shooting a lightning bolt over Tsukasa's head.

"Heh... You missed!" Tsukasa had said arrogantly. Seconds later, the beast gave a crazed-looking grin, and Tsukasa understood why when he looked up. The misfired lightning bolt had severed an electrical wire above Tsukasa's head, and it was less than a second away from him.

"Kuso-GYAAAAAA~H!" he shouted as the wire struck him, its frayed edges connecting with his DecaDriver and delivering well over 3 billion volts of electricity. Tsukasa's Decade armor dissolved away, and the boy soon collapsed to the ground face-first. All three others screamed his name. The beast jumped back several feet, in case it was a ruse to trick him. But, as Yuusuke walked over and checked for a pulse, the beast laughed.

"Natsumi-san... He's dead," Yuusuke said, lowering his gaze as he stood. Daiki restrained her for about two seconds, then suddenly reeled back to hold his nose. The distraught girl had plowed him in the face with her elbow to free herself. Daiki and Yuusuke watched as Natsumi ran forward, and, with a flourish of Kivara's power, transformed into Kamen Rider Kibara. The two boys could do little to console her now. With a draw of a card and a flourish of the hands, both boys activated their devices and charged into the fray.

"KAMEN RIDE: DIEND!"

"**HENSHIN!"**

Two more riders donned their armor and ran at the electric monster; DiEnd brandished his DiEnDriver, Kuuga switched to Pegasus Form to use the Pegasus Bowgun, and Kibara resorted to using light, quick smashes with her weapon; it wouldn't shock her as much as fully slashing it, but it was worth the bit of bite to harm this thing. DiEnd pulled out several cards and slotted each into his Driver, one after the other, then pulled the trigger.

"KAMEN RIDE: G-3!"

"KAMEN RIDE: ZOLDA!"

"KAMEN RIDE: DELTA!"

"KAMEN RIDE: GARREN!"

"KAMEN RIDE: IBUKI!"

"KAMEN RIDE: DRAKE!"

"KAMEN RIDE: ZERONOS!"

"FORM RIDE: ZERONOS VEGA!"

"KAMEN RIDE: IXA!"

"KAMEN RIDE: SKULL!"

From nowhere, nine extra Riders appeared and started shooting at the monster for devastating results.

~ELSEWHERE~

Tsukasa floated about in a wide-open expanse filled with light.

'_Well...'_ Tsukasa thought to himself, _'I don't need to be an idiot to know what this means. That jolt to my Driver killed me. Great... Dead before I could really get serious with Natsumikan.'_

"_It doesn't exactly HAVE to end this way, O Warrior of Darkness Turned to the Light!"_ a voice said from nowhere. Tsukasa looked around to find where it came from, and soon found it: A large hole opened in the light around him, revealing the figure of a large man. The only feature Tsukasa could see of the man was his head, but taking a good look told Tsukasa that what he was dealing with wasn't any normal man: This must be GOD.

"_Settle your thoughts, young one. I am not your human idea of 'THE ONE AND ONLY GOD',_ the being said. Tsukasa stared at the being for several seconds before idly inquiring as to its identity.

"_I am known by many names throughout the Gaian Multiverse. But here, in the 'Realm Between', where my formal name is HatoShirou, I am known to the others of my kind simply as Shiro. I come before you this day to beseech you for help. The Gaian Multiverse is falling apart. The monster that killed you was spawned by an organization known as "GAIASHOCKER", an elitist group who use the powers of the earth and cosmos to create their evil Kaijin offspring. They are siphoning out all of the earth's power to resurrect the lord of all evil, Gaizol. We need you to stop them before it's too late!"_

"Um... Not to be rude or anything..." Tsukasa said, "But unless you've got a way to fix ... THIS," he gestured to himself, "I"M DEAD, and I can't help you."

"_There you go again, recklessly jumping to conclusions. We know about you and your abilities, Kadoya Tsukasa. You Carry within you the powers of Decade, the traveller of the Gaian Multiverse,"_ Shiro began. He told Tsukasa of how all of the Rider Worlds, even those of the Negatives and the Shinkengers, were connected to one central Hub World where all of the Original Riders had come to reside, while simultaneously watching over their alternate reality counterpart Riders from afar to ensure they became as good at what they did, if not better, as they were.

"So, wait a second, you're telling me that somewhere in this crazy maze of worlds... is someone who walks, talks, and acts like me, and has THE EXACT SAME name as me?" Tsukasa asked, completely aghast. All this time he thought he was unique... now it turned out there may be another of him!

"_It's not like that, Kadoya-san. The man you see may have a name SIMILAR to your own, he may walk and talk like you do... But he is most certainly not the same man you are. This man doesn't possess the same capacity for harnessing the earth's energies that you do. In fact, it is ONLY because you possess this capacity that I am asking YOU for this. No other Rider has the powers you possess. They have the ability to tame and control ONE facet of our powers... but not all, like you do,"_ Shiro said. Tsukasa took this information and tried to process it. However, it was as hard for him to understand as the first time he'd used the power of Decade and travelled to another world.

"How do you know all of this?" Tsukasa asked. Shiro simply laughed at him.

"_I am one of several beings, each attuned to one specific aspect of the Gaian Multiverse's energy. If my memory serves true, there are twelve of us in total. There are Eleven Riders at this time, and it appears as though one will be born soon. He, however, is not able to handle the powers we possess. You must go to each of the other Riders' worlds and help them, for as surely as the Mulitverse crumbles, so too their worlds are falling apart. You may be dead, but with my powers as HaShiro, the White Dove of Life and Light, I can grant you a second life, with a price,"_ Shiro said.

"Of course you have a price. The price is I have to beat GAIASHOCKER before they resurrect Gaizol or my soul rots in hell for all eternity, right?" Tsukasa said, placing heavy sarcasm on every word. Shiro, needless to say, was not impressed.

"_You are perceptive, but also wrong. Your price, Kadoya Tsukasa,"_ Shiro said, _"will be given as a punishment. There are, as I have said, twelve being like myself here. Of the twelve of us, my brother KouKuro, the Black Bat of Darkness and Death, or Kuro as we call him, and myself are the gatekeepers of the realms of "Afterlife" and "Afterdeath". I guard the gate to the lighter of the two, as you might have guessed. Your price is this: six months spent in the Realm of Afterlife for each time you use MY powers of light to fight and defend, while, on the other hand, you shall be forced to spend one full year in the Realm of Afterdeath for each time you draw upon Kuro's powers to fight and destroy. THAT is your price, young one. What say you?" _Shiro watched as Tsukasa shook his head "no".

"_I see. So you'd still be against gaining new life if I were to show you what was happening with your friends?"_ Shiro said, and Tsukasa's eyes shot open.

"My... Friends?" he said. Shiro smiled widely; it seemed he'd struck a nerve in Tsuskasa's mind. He waved a massive arm and a portal opened, allowed Tsukasa to see what was happening outside. Through the portal, Tsukasa watched, screaming as one by one his friends fell before the electric menace: Kaito was hit with a large whallop of thunder from point-blank range, losing his armour and flying back into a distortion portal to his world; Yuusuke getting hit by a three-way lightning bolt sandwich that reversed his transformation to Kuuga and sent him flying back to his world through another distortion portal; Natsumi... now without backup of any kind, forced to deal with this monster and failing miserably. Which wasn't strange, considering how he'd LET her kill him back in the world of the Rider War...

"NATSUMIKAN!" Tsukasa shouted over and over again, struggling to break the portal open, go back to his body, and save Natsumi. Playing the part of the big hero was always his thing... but now, watching the girl he loved get pummeled seven different ways from last Tuesday by a creature half her size, half as powerful as she was, and half as smart as she was, made him depressed. Depressed, furious... and extremely desperate...

"Shiro-san... I accept your deal. Please, send me back. I HAVE TO HELP HER!" Tsukasa shouted.

Shiro nodded, and, raising his arms and hands with fingers spread wide, bellowed, _"THEN BY THE POWER VESTED IN ME BY THE GREAT DAIRYU, I BESTOW UPON THEE, KADOYA TSUKASA, NEW LIFE UNDER CONTRACT TO MYSELF, HASHIRO AND MY BROTHER KOUKURO, THE POWERS OF LIFE AND DEATH, AND GRANT THEE OUR POWERS! GO FORTH IN OUR NAMES AND THOSE OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, THE POWERS OF THE GAIAN MULTIVERSE! THIS DAY, A NEW RIDER IS BORN! YOU ARE NOW KNOWN AS KAMEN RIDER GAIA!"_ Shiro shouted, and soon, engulfed in a blinding white light, Tsukasa's soul found itself shattering the portal to the Realm of the Living. As it slowly closed, Shiro looked on, his last words cryptic and ... almost frightening...

"_FARETHEE WELL, KADOYA TSUKASA. Dairyu only knows you'll need all the luck you can possibly get..."_

~MUCH LATER~

Tsukasa awoke in the Hikari Studio, lying on the couch in the drawing room. He looked up and around the room, spotting Natsumi's elderly grandfather Eijiro pacing back and forth with sweat on his brows.

"Excuse me, Eijiro-san?" Tsukasa said, sitting up slowly. Eijiro jumped at Tsukasa's voice, but ran over when he saw the boy was awake.

"OH! Tsukasa-kun! Thank goodness you're awake! YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!" Eijiro said, getting on his knees in front of Tsukasa. Tsukasa looked at Eijiro with dumb-founded eyes. _'Why is everyone asking me to help them today?'_ Tsukasa thought as he stood the elderly man up and asked what was wrong. Eijiro explained that after He'd beaten the monster (_'Really? I ACTUALLY did that?')_ the monster had run off and taken Natsumi with him, but left a note. Tsukasa saw a piece of paper on a stand nearby and walked over to it. He opened it and grated his teeth as he read:

_"To Kadoya Tsukasa:_

_Greetings! My name is Koji Kikuchiro. I am the current leader of a little organization called "GAIASHOCKER", and I understand through my underling, Electron Toad, that you came back from the dead, exhibiting signs of true Gaia Alignment. We of GAIASHOCKER require your assistance, as the ex-leader of Dai-Shocker, to help us with a human sacrifice to resurrect our true leader, the great Gaizol. I await your reply in the World of Kuuga. My associates Legend and DeFiDe will be awaiting you there with one of your old ... Travelling friends. I believe his name was... Yuusuke...? Or was it ... Yuuseless? Given how effective he wasn't against my Electron Toad, he mustn't be that strong after all! Hope to hear your answer soon!_

_SINCERELY, KIKUCHIRO KOJI_

_AKA Kamen Rider DiLord"_

Tsukasa's eyes filled with anger. He ripped the note to pieces. He wasn't stupid enough to have to ask what they'd done with Natsumi... SHE was to be their sacrifice.

Tsukasa roared with rage and went for the first thing he could find: the pull cord for what he and his friends had affectionately dubbed "The Mural of Worlds", due to its strange ability to teleport the ENTIRE studio across time and space to an entirely different world.

As he yanked hard on the cord, intending to tear it right off and ruin the mural, the cord rolled up on its own, dropping down a mural Tsukasa recognized easily: It was the painting of the World of Kuuga, only now something seemed off: Instead of a picture of Kuuga's city with police cars on the streets and the city's own Mount Hiroki in the background, Kuuga was now standing on that mountain in the center of an army of Grongi Kaijin, hands on his head, entire body seemingly wracked with pain as tinges of blue and green began to creep up his form and repaint him. The strangest thing about this tapestry, however, was not that the scene had changed drastically... the strange thing was that the whole scene seemed to be underwater, as if his world were drowning. As quickly as the mural had dropped, it flashed with a ringing sound following, and then returned to normal.

Tsukasa stared at the Mural for several seconds, and then shook his head. "No," he said, "It can't be. I can't be back in Yuusuke's world... Not now!"

However, mere moments later, Tsukasa reeled and hit the ground on his knees as images flooded his mind: Kuuga in his Ultimate Form, the stylized black armour turned a light aqua blue, while the gold trim had been turned a light sea-green, a ring of water tuning into an aquatic vortex behind him; Agito in his Shining Form, the bright, glittering white of his armour replaced by a burning orange-red as a storm of intense flame surged behind him; Ryuuki in his Survive Form, the scarlet red of his armour first replaced with an earthen brown while a brown dragon smashed its tail into the ground behind him to scatter large boulders, then to a deep, dark shade of crimson with a cape and a larger, darker version of the same dragon now painted the same dark red as its master, breathing utter darkness; Faiz in his Blaster Form, the red tinge in his armour now turned a stark monochrome gray with gold accents and Sol Streams while imaged of malfunctioning circuit boards exploded around him.

The images didn't stop there: Soon Blade appeared, the golden tones and silver accents of his armour replaced by electric yellow and black, surrounded by a field of electrical discharge; Hibiki in Armed Form, the rich crimson and purple tones replaced with earthen browns and greens, while some of the original gold and silver accents were replaced by the same earthen browns and greens of the rest of his armour amidst a forest of trees that seemed to grow at his will; Kabuto in Hyper Form, the metallic silver tones of his armour replaced with lighter shades of blue and gray while his trademark rich Wine Red remained with a raging cyclone blowing behind him; Den-O in Liner Form, the reds and whites of his armour now replaced with ice-cold shades of blue with a mighty glacier standing proud behind him; Kiva, the tones of vampire's red and gold of his Emperor Form armour now replaced with blacks, demonic crimson and wicked orange with encroaching shadows surrounding him; Double, his Fang-Joker Form now repainted from bone white and darkest black to a rich, royal purple and evil-looking shade of orange, flying high on a dragon wing into a sky filled with strange energy.

From there, images of Other Riders he'd known and met flooded his mind, followed by images of several he had never known existed: One was yellow with speakers on his head; another resembled a ninja, and held an ornate dagger in HER hands; another bore stars all over his body with two weapons in hand strangely reminiscent of bladed tonfas... only star-shaped. As the images left his head, Tsukasa staggered back onto the couch and sat, his mind spinning from the sudden barrage of pictures he'd just seen. Each of the Riders he'd had close encounters with before now had forms he'd never seen before, and others he hadn't seen had forms he never would have imagined in his life. He now understood the magnitude of the task ahead of him.

What scared him were the names of the two people he was expected to relay his answer to: Legend and DiFiDe. DiFiDe sounded like something his friend Kaito would STEAL, but never use. Legend, however... that name sent signals of warning throughout his body Anyone with that name was likely to be hard to beat. HE wasn't going to like having to go up against either of these two. For now, his job involved venturing out into this... strange version of Yuusuke's world... And trying his best to find out what was going on.

_TO BE CONTINUED!_

Now, not all chapters will look like this one. All from this point on will be in deeper detail. R&R, CONSTRUCTIVE FLAMES WELCOME!


	2. INTERLUDE FOURZE 1: DANCING ALIEN!

Alright, just so everyone knows, if you follow my DeviantART account where I post the pictures of all the Riders who will be appearing in this story, you'll know that I am planning a sort of sub-story for Fourze that will tie him into the main story-line. As such, since I haven't got the first chapter of Kuuga's arc set yet, I'll leave you guys with this. This "Interlude" of sorts deals with an OC Rider that is based in Fourze's universe. I won't spoil any further details for you, so… ON WE GO!

INTERLUDE FOURZE! EP1: Dancing Alien!  
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"YOSH! IT'S THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!"

Several students of the prestigious Amanogawa High School looked around, hoping to see a green-clad brute with bushy eyebrows* standing at the gates of their school. They were sadly disappointed, however, when through the gate strode a young man with an odd-looking pompadour hairstyle. A black jacket, sporting an image of a dragon fighting a tiger on the back, sat overtop a white T-shirt, while baggy-legged black pants hung on his waist and pooled around his yellow sneakers.

Behind him strode bored- and frankly, quite annoyed-looking –boy with simple brown hair combed back neatly and a shorter young woman with waist-length black hair, both wearing the school's signature red uniform. The boy held a small object in his left hand, allowing his fingers to idly flick a small lever on the top of the device back and forth.

'_Why is it that the simplicity of the clicking seems to settle me down?'_ the brown-haired boy thought to himself as he kept in stride with his more exuberant classmate. He watched as the other boy and the girl sat down on the lawn to talk. He stopped next to them, ignoring their inane conversation about youth and morning marathon runs to quietly scan the area with his eyes, observing everything. His eyes darted rapidly from student to student, nodding quietly to himself as he identified each and every one by sight alone…

Well, he could identify every student except for one: a young man, who stood by a picnic table in the middle of the main lawn. A quick cursory glance told the brown-haired boy that the object of his observation was tense and nervous, but further study told the brown-haired boy everything he needed to know: This guy was a new transfer student, and judging by the almost constant glances to his phone, he was waiting for someone important.

"Oi, Kengo," the black-haired boy's voice called, "What're you doing? Scouting for possible Switchers?"

"You don't waste time in ruining my morning observance, do you Kisaragi?" Kengo countered quickly, turning his attention quickly from the boy he'd been watching to his classmate, "And Yuuki, what is it you're doing with Burgermeal?"

The girl, Yuuki, who had been inserting and activating a switch inside a small hamburger-like device, quietly cheered when the device unfolded to reveal a robotic head and two small arms, and then looked at Kengo with a smile, saying, "Just setting him up for monitoring duty. If we can have him scanning the school grounds during class time, we can be warned if a Switcher is active while others are distracted!"

"And besides that, how many times have I told you to call me Gentaro?" Gentaro said, slowly rising, "We're buds after all. No need to be so formal!" Gentaro smiled broadly, causing Kengo to give him an annoyed look and turn around in a huff. Meanwhile, the boy Kengo had been spying on fidgeted with his cell phone.

"Come on, come on… it's been fifteen minutes! She was supposed to call ten minutes ago…" he said to himself, tapping his bare elbow. He felt his eye twitch behind his yellow-tinted shades, feeling the fabric of his V-neck T-shirt ripple against his skin while his tight-cut blue jeans clung to his legs like vice grips. Suddenly, his phone sprang to life, letting off a series of high-pitched beeps.

'_A text?'_ the boy said, _'She must be around her friends…'_ He picked up the phone and flipped it open to read his new message.

"She's almost here?" he asked under his breath, looking up to the gate in time to see a large limousine roll up and stop. He watched as the back door opened, and stared as three young women and a muscle-bound teen boy stepped out. The girls sauntered along, with one linking her arm with one of the boy's. He saw all three girls pull out their phones and decided to test the waters. He picked up and started typing:

"_Got your message… did you just step out of that limo?"_

He waited for his phone to beep again and read:

"_Yes. I can't see you anywhere; where are you?"_

He smiled and typed back:

"_I'm close by. If I remember right, you said you'd be the one with short, brown hair, cheerleader outfit, sports player on one arm?"_

He waited and, at the beep, read:

"_Yes… wait, where did you say you were?"_

He looked up to see the one with the muscled boy start looking around frantically. He smiled.

'_Gotcha!'_ he thought, walking over.

Meanwhile, with the girl, her frantic looks came to a grinding halt as the voice of one of her friends rang through her ears with a cry of "OH MY GOD! Who's that loser coming over here? Miu, looks like you've got another admirer!"

The girl being addressed looked over to admonish her curly-haired friend, only to catch sight of the boy walking over with a beaming smile on his face. Her eyebrows ratcheted up a few notches, one eye closing partway in a look of confusion. The boy's smile only grew larger.

"MEWMEW, I KNEW I RECOGNIZED YOU!" the boys called, breaking into a run as he shot an arm into the air to wave at Miu. Her eyes bulged and, as her arm dislodged itself from around that of the boy next to her, she broke into a run.

"MAKIMA, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" she shouted back, bearing down on him as he stopped in mid-step about three feet away from her. She hopped off one foot and lunged at him, landing right in his now open and waiting arms.

A ways away, the two screams and a torrent of thrilled laughter and giggling caught Kengo's attention. He looked over, and this time, when Gentaro and Yuuki looked over to see what he was looking at, they gasped at the scene before them, both knowing it wouldn't end well for the boy involved: Kazashiro Miu, the self-pronounced Queen of Ama High, was giggling happily in the arms of a skinny boy while he spun around in small circles… with her two friends and apparent boyfriend looking on in total shock. Gentaro took a quick look at the boy left behind by Mu and noticed a look of intense fury hidden behind a confused smile. He knew where that would lead, and decided to intervene… before an arm swung down in front of him, stopping his movement.

"Oh no you don't," another friend of his, a boy with scruffy brown hair in a tan trench coat, said in a timid voice, "I'd advise against going in there, Gentaro-san. Knowing how Daimonji-san is when he's mad, we should stay out of his business!" Gentaro smiled.

"Ryuusei, I know you haven't been here long enough, but I'm the man who'll befriend everyone in Ama High! I can't stand by and let a potential bud get pummeled!" Gentaro said before bolting through Ryuusei's arm and straight towards the inevitable fray.

'_I'll give you marks for bravery and courage, Gentaro. But after that, I have to take them back for your stupidity and willingness to get yourself hurt,'_ Ryuusei Sakuta thought, hiding his calculating mind behind fake concern and a worried expression.

"We have to stop him!" Yuuki said, starting off in a dash. However, this time it was two figures, neither of them Kengo or Ryuusei, that restrained HER from moving farther than two feet.

"JK, Nadeshiko-san, why did you stop me? We have to go stop Gentaro-kun before he-" Yuuki found her though stopped short by Gentaro's shout of "YO!"

"-Never mind," she finished, slumping down to her knees on the soft ground. She had known Gentaro for years, and was always afraid his reckless abandon when it came to making friends, or in this case, saving possible new ones, would one day be the death of him. Kengo simply huffed and watched intently. Gentaro was about halfway to the danger zone when Daimonji crossed to the two in three, booming steps that brought Miu and her mystery friend out of their reverie.

"Miu, who's he?" Daimonji asked, clearly miffed, to say the absolute least. Miu tried to recover her composure, only for the mystery boy to remove his shades and smile.

"Oh, sorry about that, I forgot my manners! My name is Sanada; Maki Sanada," The boy said. Daimonji's face lost all of its former anger at this news.

"MAKI SANADA? AS IN THE POP SINGER AND FAMED DANCER?" He shouted at the top of his lungs, drawing the attention of almost every other girl and many of the boys to the area. As the crowd soon broke into a din of noise , many of the students requesting an autograph, Maki simply held up a hand, silencing the throng in one motion.

"Yes, I'm THAT Maki Sanada. I'm not familiar with anyone else who's as famous as me and shares my name, so…" Maki said, a drop of sarcasm in his voice. This sarcasm wasn't lost on Daimonji.

"Well, it's an honor to meet you! Daimonji Shun, captain of Ama High's American Football Team! My sister's a HUGE fan of yours!" Shun said. Maki smiled.

"Huh… really? I kinda figured I had a ton of fans around these parts… But I'm not one to let a fan down!" Maki said, pulling out a second cell phone. He quickly dialed a number and spoke with someone on the other line for a minute, then handed the phone to Shun, instructing him to give the person on the other end his name and mailing address. Shun warily did as asked, then hung up when the other end went dead and handed the phone back to Maki, asking what that was about.

"Simple; I just asked my agent to send a special "Sanada Overload" crate to your house. If your sister's as big a fan as you say, I doubt that she'll mind suddenly being the owner of every piece of merchandise I've ever put out… including a few things that never made it to shelves!" Maki said, a beaming smile spreading over his face, "Because like I said, I'm not one to let my fans down or leave their siblings hanging!" Shun gaped, but with a quick shake of his head, snapped back to normal.

"Well, as I said, it's an honor to meet you! But… what are you doing here at Ama? And how do you know Miu?" Shun asked. Maki's eyes bugged out for a moment, quickly closing moments later when he slapped his forehead.

"I KNEW I was forgetting something!" he said, "I'm taking an official break from the biz to finish my schooling. I stopped at the end of my second year after I was scouted. As it is, I need to complete my third year and graduate before I can allow myself to go back to showbiz!" He waited a moment, as if for dramatic effect, before continuing.

"And to answer your second question… Miu and I have been best friends since childhood. In fact… back when we were little kids, we were all the other had for companionship… It's a rather dark tale that would require sitting down to talk at length, which we clearly don't have time for. Why don't we catch up at lunch, Miu?" Maki asked. Miu smiled broadly and nodded vigorously. Shun's smile faded slightly, a hint of jealousness joining the anger he'd felt earlier.

'_WHO DOES THIS NOBODY THINK HE IS?'_ Shun thought, _'NO ONE COMES UP AND TAKES WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE! I'LL SHOW HIM THE MEANING OF RESPECT!'_

"Hey Maki-san, Can I have a word with you alone?" Shun asked. Maki smiled and nodded, turning to leave with Shun when the boy's fist soared toward his face. Maki dodged to the side quickly and put a bit of distance between them.

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, HOLD ON NOW! What is that about?" Maki asked. Shun didn't answer, but instead settled into his favorite stance: both legs bent at the knee with one closer to the ground, torso bent at the waist, one hand supporting his frame on the ground with only two fingers. Maki could tell as Shun charged him that even one of those would be dangerous.

However, no one on the grounds expected what came next. The other students watched as, in one fluid motion, Maki sidestepped and held a leg out, allowing Shun to run straight into it, tripping himself. Then, almost as quickly as he'd moved, Maki was behind Shun, applying just enough force in a kick to the other boy's back to plant the jock straight into the ground. Shun, who had been blinded by anger, couldn't understand how one moment, he was charging straight at the object of his fury, only to suddenly find himself face-first in the ground with a foot on the back of his head. Maki got on one leg, keeping his one foot on Shun's head, while placing his own head closer to Shun's ear.

"_**YOU SHOULD BE A LOT MORE CAREFUL OF WHO YOU ATTACK IN A BLIND RAGE, DAIMONJI,"**_ Maki said ominously, "Because regardless of what you think YOU'VE been through, I know for a fact that you haven't experienced what Miu and I have. Remember that." With that, Maki stood up and offered Miu his hand, which she took with a smile. The two walked toward Ama High's front doors, laughing and chatting all the way. The other students soon followed suit as the morning bells began to chime. In a matter of moments, the only one remaining was Shun, who remained on the ground for a few extra moments before an evil laugh escaped his lips.

"_**We'll see about that, Sanada. WE'LL DEFINITELY SEE ABOUT THAT."**_

_**~INTERLUDE FOURZE!~**_

Much later, after Maki had been introduced to his new class and home room teacher, Sarina Sonoda, He had proceeded to fit right in… with Gentaro and his group, to the absolute shock of most everyone in class. After class had ended, Maki and Gentaro had struck up conversation about masked heroes who fought for justice. Strangely, only Kengo found it odd that Maki had brought it up in the first place, but let it go.

Suddenly, he was forced to suppress the urge to strangle Gentaro when the pompadour-wearing youth said, "Hey Maki, wanna see our secret hideout?"

The reactions amongst those who knew of Gentaro's "secret" club were varied: Kengo was livid and visibly holding himself back from outright murdering Gentaro; Yuuki was both confused and terrified, but managed to hold herself together as she grabbed hold of Kengo's left arm to keep him from throttling the target of his rage; a shorter, black-haired Goth girl the others had introduced as Tomoko narrowed her eyes at Gentaro before aiding Yuuki in restraining Kengo; a boy with dirty-blonde wavy hair and a loud, gaudy hooded sweater under his uniform, who had been referred to as JK, simply stared at Gentaro with eyes that seemed ready to pop out of their sockets; finally, the last member of the immediate group, Sakuta Ryuusei, simply stood stock still, mouth gaping open at Gentaro. Maki blinked once, then twice, then a third time. The last member of their gang, a girl he'd been introduced to as Misaki Nadeshiko, had stepped out to use the facilities. Maki had caught a faint whiff of something… _OFF_ with her, but had left it alone for the time being to continue his conversation.

"I think you may want to rephrase that statement, Gen-san," Maki said, grimacing a bit, "Because from where I'm sitting, you've got someone behind you who looks ready to dice you into little pieces!" Gentaro looked back to see the look of pure fury on Kengo's face. Kengo said nothing, but instead pulled himself free of Yuuki's and Tomoko's arms and left the room for parts unknown. Maki watched him go before hearing the alarm on his cell ring.

"CRAP! I've got to meet Miu!" he shouted, jumping up and dashing out of the room. Gentaro looked to the others just before Maki popped his head back into the room and said, "I'll have to take a rain-check on that tour for now, alright Gen-san?"

And with that, the boy vanished, leaving the motley crew of youngsters to their own devices.

Gentaro looked to the others and said, "I don't know what it is, but he gives off a weird vibe… like he's hiding something… Almost like you before you joined up, Ryuusei!" Ryuusei smiled and looked away.

'_Is he looking to get a rise out of me? Is he TRYING to make me punch him again?'_ Ryuusei thought, his face grimacing slightly. He flinched as a hint of dark aura erupted behind him, and everyone turned as the lone Goth of the group narrowed her eyes at the door.

"_I agree with Gentaro-san… he's not telling us something… and by the feel of the essence he left behind, it won't end well for him if he keeps it hidden…"_Tomoko said cryptically. Everyone looked from her to the door. What was she talking about?

_**~INTERLUDE FOURZE!~**_

_**Elsewhere, a lone figure stood before a towering beast that resembled a humanoid scorpion. The creature extended a clawed hand and opened it, revealing a small, rounded object with a flat bottom and a single button on the top. As the figure reached out and picked up the object from the scorpion monster's hand, they pushed the small button on the top of the object, only to be soon engulfed in black flames while a set of brightly shining stars appeared in a seemingly random pattern. As the flames died down, the stars rearranged, setting down on the body, leaving a trail on one arm that ended with one on the back of his left hand. A crown sat atop the new being's head, sharp and jagged and seemingly scorched into its skull, while what appeared to be a long, flowing, tattered robe hung from its shoulders. The beast raised a hand to the sky and roared. When it looked away, the scorpion beast has vanished, leaving only a cryptic sentence in the air:**_

"_**MAKE A WISH ON THE STARS."**_

_**~INTERLUDE FOURZE!~**_

For the first time in two years, the students sitting in Ama High's cafeteria sat and ate in blissful peace. Normally, the air would be filled with cocky announcements of turf war between the delinquents and the jocks, which was almost always quashed by Shun punching the leader of the delinquent gang in the face, knocking him out, or snide comments from Miu and her two friends about every other girl in school, in voices JUST loud enough that everyone else could hear what they were saying over EVERYONE else.

But this day, things were different. Miu had left Shun and her two friends alone at the popular table to sit with Maki and catch up on what they'd been missing. It turned out Miu was plenty knowledgeable of Maki's rise to fame and stardom… what she wanted to know was what had happened during the two years between him leaving and his being scouted.

"Ah… yeah," Maki said, grimacing a bit, "That's kinda… painful for me. But I know you're my best friend and won't tell anyone, so…" Miu placed her elbows square on the table and rested her head with head chin between her hands, smiling happily to indicate she was ready. Maki sighed deeply and bowed his head.

"About a year after my parents dragged me away," Maki started, "things just kept going from bad to worse. Tou-san took to the bottle and kaa-san did whatever she could to keep him from going over the edge… but it just failed in the end. Around six months before I was scouted, we were in the car on the way to a function at his work when a tanker truck rammed into our car on kaa-san's side of the car. I remember seeing her face twisted into this bloodied mask of pain for three seconds before everything went black…" Maki stopped abruptly, eyes closed. The image had returned to him, bringing with it a fresh set of tears.

Maki smiled when Miu reached across the table and took his hands in hers as an act of comfort. He looked her in the eyes and nodded.

"Thanks, Mewmew, I needed that… it's never easy seeing her face like that…" Maki said, taking a deep breath before continuing, "It was hard for a while. My father managed to survive by some freak miracle, and apparently demanded that HE be placed in charge of the surgeries that gave way to my full recovery… I guess the only clear way to explain that one to you would be to do this…"

With that, Maki reached for his left wrist with his right index fingernail and swiped fast, making a single clean slice that strangely didn't bleed. Before Miu could inquire further, Maki grabbed hold of the inside of the open skin and pulled down, literally tearing the flesh away to reveal electrical circuits and mechanical parts.

Miu's reaction wouldn't have surprised Maki if she'd just simply screamed and backed away from him… but instead, her eyes locked on his arm, widening with each action he took, with little more than an audible gasp of surprise when he rolled the torn flesh back up to its rightful place, allowing it to stitch itself back together. Soon, no one would have been able to tell the difference.

"From what tou-san told me of the accident," Maki said, "the wreck destroyed most of my body. As it is, I shouldn't even be alive today. But thanks to tou-san's single burst of liquor-less quick thinking, my body was pieced back together in about twenty-seven-and-a-half hours of constant surgery. I was kept in the hospital for recovery purposes for several months after, and resumed school in Nagareboshi* High School. Then, toward graduation, I was scouted after a teacher overheard me singing in the boy's showers. Schooling was placed on hold from then on… and I've been doing showbiz since. About a year later, though, tou-san died."

Miu gasped again, and then asked, "What? How?"

Maki nodded again, then continued, "Seems that there was a spy for a rival company in his office who was smuggling their secrets to the other side. From what I know, when tou-san found out, he hunted the suspect down and attempted to take back his research… only to be shot point blank as soon as he got close. Two weeks later, I fronted the funeral service for both him and kaa-san, and… well, you know the rest."

**~ELSEWHERE~**

Gentaro was walking through the campus grounds with Yuuki when a terrified scream ruptured the air around them Gentaro looked to Yuuki, who returned his look of worry with one of her own, before both set off at a run. As they ran, Gentaro pulled out a strange-looking cell phone, dialed in a conference call and spoke in a determined tone:

"ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS OF THE KAMEN RIDER CLUB, WE ARE ENTERING A RED ALERT STATUS! YUUKI AND I ARE EN ROUTE TO THE TARGET DESTINATION; WE'LL MEET YOU THERE!"

**~ELSEWHERE~**

Ryuusei, having received the call on his cell, had told the others he'd help from the group's secret hideout, the Moon Base Rabbit Hatch, and run tactical aide. On his way to the designated location, he'd deterred and found a secluded spot.

"Sorry, but tactical battle isn't my specialty. Fortunately for all of you," he said, a hint of his calculating personality showing through, "I'm more than capable of a raw beat-down. M-BUS, henshin confirmed."

Taking a blue-and-black buckle from his coat pocket, Ryuusei placed the object on his waist, allowing the belt to materialize around his waist as he slid a small sliding switch to the left. As soon as he did this, a voice sounded from the buckle:

"_**METEO… REDII?"**_

_**Up in the depths of space, a lone satellite turned on its axis, the two double-hook-like sides extending outward to give the center room to rotate downward, enlarging into a fair-sized laser cannon.**_

Holding his arms out at his sides, Ryuusei moved them in a clockwise rotation, ending with his left hand above his right, over the right side of the buckle.

"HENSHIN!"

Ryuusei threw his left arm down, striking a blue, spherical lever on the buckle's side, sending the sliding lever sliding back toward the buckle's center.

_**The satellite fired a beam of blue light from the cannon which pierced through the planet's atmosphere, **_enveloping Ryuusei's body as he crouched down into a kneeling position. The energy surged and swirled, forming a star-studded suit of black armor with a single, three-pronged streak of shoulder armor and the appearance of a comet ringed in metal for a head, leaving only a pair of crimson eyes to stare coldly as the energy swirled closer, forming a ball of blue that safely encased his body as it leapt skyward and soared to the location of the threat.

**~ELSEWHERE~**

With the team now assembled, Gentaro nodded to Misaki, who nodded back. She stepped up to stand next to him. Both pulled out a pair of rather bulky buckles from their pockets and placed them on their waists. As a pair of belts formed around their waists, Gentaro flipped down four red switches on his white buckle, while Misaki flipped the only two on her blue one. Both flung their arms out form their left sides to their right, with their right hand on a small lever on the buckle's side while their left remained balled into a fist and held aloft next to their faces.

Two mechanical voices announced:

"_**SURII (THREE)"**_

_**The monster ahead of the two roared.**_

"_**TWO"**_

_**The small group behind the two cheered them on silently.**_

"_**WAN (ONE)"**_

"HENSHIN!" both boy and girl shouted as they threw their right hands forward, throwing the lever. Seconds later, a pair of metal rings erupted around them, spinning up to rest several inches over their heads as they thrust their right hands skyward, prompting a blast of smoke and steam to coat their bodies. Soon, those same hands swung down so sweep the smoke and steam away to reveal armor-clad forms, with Gentaro's helmet resembling a rocket, with a conical crown and two booster-like attachments off the sides of his head, while Misaki's resembled an alien, with two small antennae coming from the top of her head. The two bent down at the knees, squatting close to the ground with their arms bent at the elbow so their fists were close to their chins.

"UCHUUU… KITAAAAAA!*" Both shouted loudly, taking off at a run while throwing their arms into the air. Just as they prepared to attack, a small blue fireball flew out of the sky and arced, slamming into the monster before touching down in front of the two armored teens, revealing…

"METEOR!" Gentaro said from behind his mask.

"Kamen Rider… Meteor?" Misaki asked. Meteor turned around to face the monster.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" The monster demanded, roaring again.

Meteor simply huffed and, placing his right thumb along the side of his helmet, below his nose, said, "Kamen Rider Meteor. I…" here, Meteor pulled the thumb across his helmet in a downward arc so it ended over his left shoulder, "…Will decide your fate." With that, Meteor rushed in, throwing multiple jabs with both fists … to no avail.

Without so much as a word, Gentaro and Misaki rushed in each attempted to land a solid hit.

**~ELSEWHERE~**

Maki and Miu were still sitting at their table, laughing at almost nothing, When a sudden splitting pain ripped through Maki's head and left side. He knew what it was, but hoped Miu hadn't noticed.

"Ma-kun, what's wrong?" She asked, dashing his hopes wide open. He looked up with a grimace and pulled out a bottle from his pocket.

"A side-effect of the surgeries that kept me alive is a massive case of internal rejection. My body sees the mechanical portions within as part of itself, but doesn't see them as being natural. So, when it rejects its presence… the results are less than pleasant. As a result of this, I have to take what can only be called, for lack of a better term, … a mammoth-sized horse pill to keep the effect down," Maki said, opening the bottle to allow a single white pill about the size of his little finger and about as wide as his big toe to fall into his hand before continuing, "and I don't do well with pills at all… This could wind up taking me a while. Is it alright if I head to the men's room to force this thing down?" Miu took one look at the pill in Maki's hand and … almost imploded. However, she remembered that she had an image to uphold.

"Absolutely, Ma-kun, go ahead. I'll be waiting right here for you when you finish!" she said, Maki smiled and got up to leave. However, as he strode past Miu, he leaned down and gently kissed her cheek.

"I'm holding you to that, Mewmew!" Maki shouted as he darted off. Miu stood slowly and stared off after him, a little dazed. A hand slowly rose to touch her cheek as a beaming smile crept over her face.

However, as he approached the bathrooms, Maki took a detour, following the faint twinges of pain in his head as they aimed him toward another destination. Sure enough, as he slid to a stop behind a pillar, he stared out and shook his head. He was both relieved and saddened by what he saw:

Three armored heroes were attacking a large, crown-headed monster in a tattered robe on the grounds, ringed by a small set of supporters.

"There are Kamen Riders and Zodiarts are here as well? What the hell is going on here," Maki asked himself, as he took the pill and tossed it into his mouth. He wasn't going to lie to his oldest friend… at least, not any further than he already had. He had already lied about several things… his body's rejection of its non-human parts was one of them. However, the nature of his non-human parts was a BIG lie on his part… and he was forcing back the pain that came with lying to his oldest and dearest friend. Gathering his courage and steeling his nerves, he poked his head around the corner and watched.

The rocket-headed hero threw an amateurish punch that barely seemed to phase the beast, while from another angle, an antenna-headed female Rider held the beast in place with a large winch coming off a tether reel on her left arm. Through all this, the one with a head like a falling comet simply stood behind the beast, pummeling it with punch after furious, swift punch, to no avail. Maki shook his head again, this time in near shame.

"_How can they call themselves Riders if they can't take this guy down? Compared so some others I've seen, this guy's a PUSHOVER!"_ He said under his breath, forcing himself to just stand and watch the completely one-sided beat-down that was to come.

Unfortunately, his nerves couldn't take it anymore when he watched the beast snap the line and haul off with a strong left hook… to the girl of the three. Maki could handle it when guys got hit; it was a part of a man's life to be hit in the midst of a serious fight!

But to see a woman get treated that way… it just rubbed him in ways that got his blood burning. He had to intervene.

It was to everyone else's surprise when a sudden shout of "OI!" caught the ears of everyone in the area, drawing the attention of the combatants and spectators to the pillar by the back entrance to the school's gym. Standing there, in plain view, was Maki Sanada, bearing a look of primal fury raging through eyes, once brown, that now bore a burning flame of rage.

"I don't give a damn WHO you think you are, Crown-Boy," he said, addressing the crown-headed monster, "BUT NO ONE HITS A WOMAN AND GETS AWAY WITH IT ON MY WATCH!" With that, he strode towards the battle scene.

To the four people watching from the sidelines, the idea to stop Maki from getting himself killed did indeed come to mind, but seeing the burning anger in his eyes told them one equally important thing:

"_**YOU TRY TO STOP ME, I WON'T HOLD BACK."**_

With that, the bystanders stepped aside, giving Maki room to pass.

However, Maki soon found a single hand on his arm to hold him back and half-turned on one heel to find Kengo holding onto him.

"Kengo-san, I appreciate that you don't want me to hurt myself like this… But you don't know everything there is to know about me. I'm not going to get hurt here. In fact, I think I've got more than enough to take him down JUST as I am," Maki said, easily shaking Kengo's hand off his arm. With that, he strode over to the battle field and motioned for the three armored heroes to step aside. He couldn't tell what their thoughts were, but they certainly differed.

Inside his suit, Gentaro had a confused, almost scared look on his face as he thought, _'what are you THINKING, Maki? You're going to kill yourself!"_

In hers, Misaki stared at Maki with stunned eyes, wondering, _'Does he really want to die that badly?'_

In his suit, voice disguised by the helmet, Ryuusei looked hard into Maki's eyes and saw what he intended to do. At this point, he shrugged his shoulders and turned around.

"Alright then, If that's what you want, newcomer. I'm certainly not going to stop you…" He said, walking away. In stark contrast to his declaration, however, there was only one thought running through his mind:

'_**I certainly don't want to wind up being a stop on your warpath by standing against you.'**_

Gentaro watched as the mysterious man in the Meteor Armor simply turned and walked away, and, after turning to give Maki a single glance, realized what Meteor was doing.

Turning and walking past Maki, Gentaro stopped by his left side and said, "While I'd do anything to help out a bud, I know what that looks means. I'm not going to stand against you, Maki. Go on ahead."

Maki recognized the voice right away and nodded, placing a hand on Gentaro's armor-clad shoulder as he smiled slightly and said, "Thanks, Gen-kun. You're a good friend." With that, he continued to walk until he was right in the path of the regal-looking monster. HE stood his ground, hands held square at his sides, balled into fists.

Misaki understood what was happening and moved, narrowly escaping another furious punch from the monster. However, no one was expecting Maki to grab the beast by its massive fist and punch it square in the stomach.

Three odd things happened with that punch. The first was that the beast actually staggered back a few feet and gasped, obviously winded. Second, when Maki lowered his hand to his side again, he didn't wince once.

But the third thing was only noticed by Meteor, who stared hard at Maki's hand and thought, _**'No blood? How is that possible?'**_

And soon, everyone noticed the complete absence of blood on Maki's knuckles. Everyone stared in shock as the beast gathered itself and lunged again, this time swinging both hands forward for a pincer strike. Instead of hitting Maki's skull, however, the beast's fists slammed into each other before snaking their way to the creature's groin after a pained squeak escaped the monster. As it collapsed to the ground, the three heroes and their friends gaped at Maki, who appeared behind it shaking his left foot vigorously.

"I figured you'd be protected down there, but SERIOUSLY, that's some TOUGH armor!" Maki said, half praising, half mocking. The beast took a few minutes to stand up and gather itself again. Maki looked over at Kengo.

"If you're here, that must mean you've got equipment that can give me a few hints, correct?" he asked calmly. Kengo nodded and opened up a small briefcase he had laying next to him on the ground.

"It's the King Zodiarts, based on the constellation of King Cepheus! He's supposed to be extremely powerful!" Kengo shouted. Maki nodded. Outwardly, he showed no sign of emotion. In his head, he was furious.

'_It HAD to be HIM. IT JUST HAD TO BE HIM!'_ Maki shouted in his head over and over again. As the King Zodiarts rose and fell repeatedly, Maki's fury only grew hotter and hotter. For a good five minutes, Maki's system of dodging and countering served him well.

It served him well until the King Zodiarts caught on to his plan and allowed Maki to send him tumbling again in order to land a punch. Maki slid back a few feet after the King Zodiarts' fist made contact with his cheekbone. Placing a finger to the bone, Maki winced slightly, and then dragged that same finger across his lip, only to pull it away with a large streak of blood on it.

"Ah hah… going that way, are we?" Maki asked, a little miffed that he'd let his guard down like that. With that, he waited for the King Zodiarts to rush him again. When it did, Maki did another incredible thing: With what seemed like a fair bit of effort, Maki hopped off one foot into a mid-air spin, allowing his feet to slam and rotate in the King Zodiarts's face, sending it flying onto its back several feet away.

Behind him, Meteor stared, vocalizing his only thought:

"Something's not right with this picture…"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Gentaro asked. Meteor turned to face him and shook his head.

"You honestly aren't seeing ANY of what's going on over there, are you?" Meteor deadpanned, "The guy has no visible muscles, appears untrained in the ways of martial arts, and has no Rider armor. Seeing as that's the case, HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN HOW HE'S ABLE TO HOLD OFF WHAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE ONE OF THE STRONGEST ZODIARTS OUT THERE, SECOND ONLY TO A HOROSCOPES?"

"OF COURSE I'M SEEING IT!" Gentaro shouted back, clearly insulted, "I just don't understand what's going on. I have insane amounts of trouble with even a low-powered Zodiarts before it hits Last One stage, and he's out there kicking butt… it's crazy… I just can't wrap my head around it." Meteor backed up a space.

'_**Maybe I've misjudged Gentaro… he always acts totally ignorant, but this… he's actually observing someone else's battle with an analytical eye…'**_ Meteor thought to himself.

"I mean, look at how strong he is! I have to get him to train me!" Gentaro said. Meteor raised a single hand and slapped his armored face.

'…_**Or maybe I spoke too soon. He's just an idiot,'**_ Meteor thought. He turned around to watch the fight again, only to see something that sent him falling on his rear.

Maki had locked his left leg around the King Zodiarts' right and pulled up in a kick, sending the King Zodiarts flying, before jumping up to deliver a two-legged axe kick that sent the King Zodiarts back to the ground. Then, with a crash, Maki descended back to earth to deliver a two-legged stomp to the King Zodiarts' skull, then hopped off in a reverse swan dive, staying almost entirely lateral as he landed on the ground between the King Zodiarts and the others, allowing his right foot to slide out a bit behind him, which took him down into a half-assed crouch.

_**~ELWHERE~**_

Miu sat at the table in the cafeteria.

With a quick gaze at the clock, she muttered, "Is he REALLY THAT bad with pills?" she checked her watch and noticed that there were only fifteen minutes left to lunch break.

"Maybe… I should go look for him… make sure he's alright…" she reasoned with herself, forcing herself to stand up and run off to the bathrooms.

_**~BACK AT THE FIGHT~**_

"That all you've got, King-boy? If so, that's really a shame. I thought you supposed to be a big, tough King Zodiarts. But you're no more than a wimp, compared to some of the other thugs like you that I've thrashed," Maki said, standing up. He watched as the King Zodiarts struggled to stand. Maki smirked, and then lightly tapped each of his palms. Raising both arms so they rested atop the opposite shoulder, Maki curled his middle and ring fingers in like claws while holding his thumb, index and pinky fingers straight out on each hand.

Kengo nearly lost consciousness when he saw what Maki was doing. In the boy's hands were Astro Switches, the technology that made Gentaro's Fourze armor possible… but Maki's were… ingrained in his hands?

Maki took a deep breath and pulled back the curled fingers on each hand, flipping the switches in his hands. At this, Maki took another deep breath as a robotic voice spoke from absolutely nowhere:

"_**UCHUU ENERUGI NO BAKUHATSU HENO KAUNTODAUN GA KAISHI: SURII (COUNTDOWN TO COSMIC ENERGY DETONATION START: THREE)…"**_

Maki stared at the King Zodiarts, which seemed to stare back at him, while lowering his arms to rest on their respective sides.

"…_**TWO…"**_

Gentaro, Misaki and Meteor stared from behind their helmets, shocked. Maki took another deep breath as he raised his arms back to their original positions along his shoulders.

"…_**WAN…"**_

"HENSHIN!" Maki shouted, flicking his curled fingers outward, flipping the switches again as he swung his arms back to his sides.

"_**UCHUU ENERUGI NO BAKUHATSU KAUNTODAUN GA CHUUSHI SAREMASHITA! HENSHIN JUUJI! (COSMIC ENERGY DETONATION COUNTDOWN ABORTED! HENSHIN ENGAGED!"**_ the voice shouted. As Maki raised his arms once more, copious amounts of steam and smoke began pouring from his back while two mechanical rings erupted from his stomach. While one went down to his feet, the other shot upward past his head, allowing the smoke to wrap around his body.

Suddenly, as the rings vanished, the smoke and steam dispersed, revealing a being clad in a brown body suit and strange-looking silver armor on his chest and ankles. The Chest was adorned with a set of five skull decorations, arranged like a necklace, with one more above his groin and one under each knee. Each boot had a set of four claws on it, and coming off the belt were two identical flaps of metal-coated material. To the right side of its body were held its arms, the left one lateral so its hand could be used to support the right side under the elbow. The being held his right hand like a pretend gun, level to his face.

However, that was just what the others behind him could see. What only King Zodiarts could see was the helmet's face: a large green orb-like protrusion on the chin and two small ovular extensions on the sides of the head that resembled a gas-mask. On his head were three objects that resembled Mohawk-like obelisks, while the green eye plates were capped off at the top with six short antennae, three on each side of his face.

King Zodiarts gathered its faculties for a moment before a deep, booming voice bellowed, "KI-SAMA! NANI MONO DA? (YOU BASTARD! WHO ARE YOU?)"

_**~PLAY THEME: "DOUBT & TRUTH" – AXS~**_

The being ahead simply scoffed and pointed its right hand at the King Zodiarts, saying, "KAMEN RIDER… ALIEN. WATASHI NO KATTA NO SASHI KIZU DE SHINU TAMENO JUNBI! (PREPARE TO DIE BY MY CUTTER'S STING!" the being called Alien shouted, adopting a standing posture with no intent to attack or defend. The King Zodiarts simply scoffed.

"You expect to beat me like THAT? TRY AGAIN!" It shouted, rushing in to attempt a punch. It soon found itself flying into the air, where it was met with a series of rapid punches that sent it back into the ground. As King Zodiarts stood again, Alien landed on both feet and readopted his original posture.

"WHAT THE HELL?" King Zodiarts shouted, rushing in again to kick Alien in the head. Alien's response was to simply duck and perform something that might have been part of an ice dance: using the claws on his left boot as an anchor, Alien crouched low to the ground, and, using his heel for balance, spun around in a tight circle, holding his right foot out to repeatedly kick the King Zodiarts. After thirty seconds, Alien began to slowly rise up on his leg, his kicks rising higher and higher until he was kicking the Zodiarts' head.

With one final lateral kick, Maki extended both legs into a near-splits situation, launching the Zodiarts high into the air. Once again, as he'd done before, he leapt high; flipping in midair he delivered a powerful two-legged heel-drop kick, then followed the Zodiarts' descent and delivered a double heel-stomp to the sternum upon landing. Then, with another graceful leap, he removed himself from the struggling Zodiarts' frame and nodded to himself.

_**~BACK WITH MIU~**_

Miu had stopped at the bathrooms and asked a few of the boys from the football team, one with brown hair, one with black, and the other with brown, green-tipped hair, to see if Maki were there.

"Sanada-san? As in the new guy that came in today and embarrassed Daimonji?" the green-tipped one said, thinking a for moment.

"Yes, that's him! Have you seen him? He said he had to take some medicine and hasn't been back for roughly twenty minutes!" Miu said, sounding worried. The boys looked at each other.

"Well," the blonde said, "I actually just saw him shoot past the gym. He was tossing a pretty big pill into his mouth, muttering something about the taps not working in the bathroom. He dashed out back to see if the wash-up sink is working."

Miu nodded and thanked them, then ran off. The brown-haired boy looked at his friends and shook his head.

"Cho-kun, you sure we should have lied to her like that? If she finds out, she'll make our lives a living hell!" the brown haired boy said, looking at the boy with green-tipped hair.

Cho-kun looked to the other and said, "Knock it off, Kaza-kun. It's not as if Daimonji-san can't sway her away from that, right, Dai-san?"

Dai, the black-haired boy looked at his friends with a dark expression and said, "True… but if he finds out we were covering for his now sworn enemy, do you honestly think HE'LL let us off that easily?" All three looked at each other and shuddered, the thought of what their team captain would do scaring them to death. With that, they backed up several steps and darted off to find good hiding places.

_**~BACK AT THE FIGHT~**_

When the King Zodiarts slowly rose to its feet again, Alien chuckled, "HA HA! Looks like you're worth my time after all! Let's ramp up the stakes here, shall we?" With that, he reached for his hands. On his right, he pulled the switch's tab backwards, and then rotated it one-hundred-and-eighty degrees, then flipped it back on. The robotic voice from earlier returned.

"_**KATTA: ARUTA (CUTTER: ALTER)!"**_

With that, a wickedly curved blade erupted from Alien's right hand, which he then tossed skyward. Reaching for his left hand, he did the same thing.

"_**SUTINGA: ARUTA (STINGER: ALTER)!"**_

Moments later, a long whip shot from Alien's left hand, which he cracked several times as he caught the sword.

"Remember what I said about "My Cutter's Sting?" Alien asked, tossing both weapons toward each other. A ball of white light erupted around the two. When Alien placed his hand to the light and pulled, only the sword emerged. However…aside from the presence of a trigger and guard on the handle, it seemed different to the Zodiarts somehow…

It was only when Alien swung the blade, allowing it to split into close to one hundred sections that the Zodiarts realized what had happened… and then the end of the newly formed whip-bade struck his arm. Reeling back from the hit, the Zodiarts looked at Alien, who was now spinning the blade over his head in a spiral.

"Are you ready to die, Zodiarts?" Alien said calmly, swinging the blade in wide arcs. The blade's last fifty sections all managed to land continuous hits on the Zodiarts' hide, with the last swing of fifteen finally knocking it onto its back. With that, Maki pushed the trigger backwards, summoning the sections back to each other and into the handle, where they recombined into one. Tossing the blade high, Alien turned the two switches in his hands off and removed them, then, as he caught the sword, inserted the switches into the sides of the guard and flipped them back on. With no more than a pull of the trigger, the robotic voice from before came back.

"_**RIMITO BUREIKU! (LIMIT BREAK!)"**_ the voice shouted as the weapon began flashing with light. Alien stared his foe down.

"EIRIEN DAI HOIIPU KURASHU! (ALIEN GREAT WHIP CLASH!)" Alien shouted, swinging the blade in a series of arcs. With the first swing, the blade extended out into twice the sections it had before, and with each swing Alien took another step closer to the monster, until finally the last slash used every section of the blade. With that final slash, Alien turned on his heel, allowing the blade to fly out to his right side. In the same motion, Alien shouldered the blade, causing the sections of the blade to shoot through the Zodiarts' body one last time before reconnecting to the hilt. When the last section resumed its place at the tip of the blade, Alien snapped his fingers.

The Zodiarts had known it was in for pain when the attack started. But he had no idea why he was feeling so much EXCESS PAIN. The slashes, as repetitious as they had been, ACTUALLY hadn't hurt that much. It was only when he looked down to his feet that he saw glowing white lines that spanned his body and arms that resembled a certain flag.

"The Union Jack of England is what will be your demise this day. Night, Night, Zodiarts; hope you have a horrible sleep in hell," Maki said, taking a step forward. The Zodiarts bellowed in rage and pain, then collapsed to one knee, soon enveloped in a massive explosion. Maki smiled behind his helmet.

However, as he turned around, he was struck on the right side of his face by a large fist, which simultaneously struck the gas-mask extension on that side.

The Zodiarts chuckled in victory, but soon reeled in terror at what it saw as it looked at it's opponent's mask: the right side of the mask had peeled away, revealing Maki's face, which had turned almost crimson from pure anger. His eyes, still burning with a raging fire, were now bent back in a furious scowl, and his entire face seemed to be SHAKING.

Without warning, Maki reached his right hand under the Zodiarts' guard and delivered a bone-shattering punch to its jaw line, sending it hurtling skyward.

With no more than a turn to face the others, Maki pressed on the other mask extension. With three bursts of compressed air releasing, the top of the mask split off and rolled up over the top of his head, while the bottom dropped to rest on his chest. He slid the left side over and moved the right side so his face was visible.

In stark contrast to his broiling rage, Maki has a serene smile on his face as he looked to Gentaro and said, "Gen-kun… If you're alright with it, I'd like to name my newest finishing attack in honor of our newly-born friendship." Gentaro reached for his buckle and flipped a set of four red switches up, reversing his armor in a flurry of lights, sound and smoke.

"You want to name an ATTACK… in honor of our… friendship?" Gentaro asked, confused.

With a chuckle, Maki said, "Actually… it would be in honor of YOU." Gentaro staggered back a step.

"YOSH! I APPROVE! LET ME SEE WHAT YOUR YOUTH CAN DO, MAKI!" Gentaro shouted enthusiastically, a tear coming to his eye.

'_Tears of manly joy, I'd assume he'd call them?' _Maki thought. As he turned, he pressed the extensions again. As the two sides of the mask shifted back to the center, the bottom moved up to seal into place. As the top of the mask dropped back again, sealing into place, Alien's eyes flashed green. With that, he crouched down and pressed his thumbs against the panels on the armor flaps on his legs. As his thumbs rose up the panels, they began to fill with a bright blue light. Once he hit the tops, he reached for the two odd shaped on his belt, which seemed to be split in half with on half smaller than the other. Pressing his thumbs and index fingers to the tops and bottoms of each shape, he pushed in, closing them before pushing down with his thumbs to set them spinning.

After ten seconds, Alien placed his fingers alongside the two shapes and stopped them, splitting them open to reveal a bright blue gleam to the stripes within. With this, the light began to flow through his body, resting in his hands and feet.

About this time, Miu arrived and was about to call Maki's name when she saw four figures in high-tech armor, three of them looking at one with what appeared to be a necklace of large skulls on his chest.

'_Maybe I'd be better off not saying anything,'_ Miu thought, resigning herself to hiding behind a pillar nearby to watch.

Meanwhile, Meteor watched Maki's actions and shifted in place.

'_He's attempting a Limit Break using his own body's energy in place of… no, I can feel Cosmic Energy in him as well! What is he DOING?'_ Meteor thought to himself. Suddenly, Maki straightened up and reared back, making a big fist out of both hands.

"_**RIMITO BUREIKU!"**_

Alien thrust his arms outward, the energy on his hands solidifying over them into a large projection of a spiked hammer. At that moment, the King Zodiarts began its descent. As it neared the ground some ten feet from Alien, time seemed to slow down.

"**EIRIENU (ALIEN)…"** Maki shouted as the energy projection launched off his fists and slammed into the Zodiarts, pushing it even further away. The Zodiarts roared in pain.

"**ETANARU (ETERNAL)…"** Maki continued, breaking into a slow stride toward the soaring Zodiarts. The spikes in the projection now seemed very concrete to the King Zodiarts, who was howling in pain. To him, the spikes were real, and were actually drills boring into its body.

"**SEISHUN (YOUTH)…"** Maki shouted, taking a single flying leap off one leg and arriving in front of the hurtling Zodiarts in less than a second, holding one leg up so his foot was level with his head while the other stayed in a standing position. The monster roared in pain. It knew what was going to happen next, and somehow instinctively knew it wouldn't survive.

"**FIIVA (FEVER)!"** Maki shouted, swinging his legs to scissor kick the Zodiarts once, then again, using the energy on his feet to break through the beast's armored hide. As the first kick collided, the beast grunted, but when the second one hit, it screamed as a massive explosion rocked its body. Maki landed several feet away from the contact area, crouched on one knee.

It was only then that Maki realized what he'd done. The energy had overloaded the Zodiarts' body, and had caused the explosion to go out of control. Due to this, the flames were soaring toward Gentaro and his friends.

"DAMN!" Maki shouted, rushing over while activating a switch embedded in the center of his ribcage.

"_**AAMA: ARUTA (ARMOR: ALTER)!"**_ called the voice from earlier as Maki used a quick burst of speed to get right in front of Gentaro and the rest. With no more than a simple groan, he thrust both arms up and out to the side, erecting a large wall of what appeared to be elastic, liquid metal. However, as the wall stretched out to completely cover off the group, he heard a sound he knew all too well: the sound of Miu SCREAMING.

"DAMN IT!" He shouted, activating another switch just beneath the last one.

"_**SUPURITO (SPLIT)!"**_

In an instant, another body shot past the group and out into the waiting storm, leaving Kengo to think, _'Was that… a clone of his body?'_

Indeed it was. Very soon, Kengo realized what Maki had done.

Miu stood behind her pillar, grabbing at loose stone for dear life, when the skull-necklace armored man approached faster than she could follow.

"MISS! GRAB MY HAND! TRUST ME!" The man said, and without a second thought, Miu nodded furiously and grabbed his hand. In an instant, a liquid metal substance shot from his hand all the way up her arm and across her clothes and skin. The man then embraced her tightly, sending more of the substance flowing all over her.

Maki could hear Miu screaming the entire time, but he didn't care. As soon as the liquid armor had closed around her, he closed his eyes and held her tight. At that exact moment, the flames of the explosion washed over the two and the group in the barrier; however, the flames had absolutely no effect on anything but the school grounds.

Inside his helmet, Maki was monitoring the heat levels outside of the liquid armor. As soon as it receded about two minutes later, he let Miu go, allowing the liquid armor to flow off of her and back into him. At that, he flipped off the two switches, causing the clone holding the barrier together to vanish and summoning the armor used to form that barrier back into himself. With that, Maki looked to Miu and nodded.

"Are you alright, Miss? Nothing damaged?" he asked. Miu looked at him warily.

"Why would you help me?" she asked.

"Because that's part of being what I am: A KAMEN RIDER. A hero of justice and protector of the innocent who strikes down monsters that stand for destruction and carnage," Maki said. In his head, he thought, _'That and you know me better than you think. I just hope that Gentaro doesn't do anything to-'_

"OI, MAKI! NICE SAVE THERE!" Gentaro shouted enthusiastically. Maki slowly turned his head towards his friend, the look of utter shock and confusion on his face capable of only one descriptive word: PRICELESS.

"Ma-kun? Is that really you in there?" Miu asked tentatively. Maki turned his head back to look her in the eyes and hung his head.

"Thanks Gen-kun," he said aloud, sliding his fingers through the now dull grooves in the shapes on his belt, causing the energy in his body to recede, reverting to his normal human body. He raised his head to give her a sheepish look.

"You're mad, right?" he asked. With no more than an irritated look, Miu reared her arm back. Maki braced for the impact.

His eyes bugged out, however, not because she slapped him, but because INSTEAD of slapping him, she hugged him tight.

"Did you, or did you not just save my life?" Miu asked. Maki smiled and hugged back.

"I'm sorry I lied to you, Miu. I promise I won't ever do it again," he said sincerely. Miu pulled away and simply smiled before doing something that shocked everyone else present for the seemingly umpteenth time that day: leaning in quickly, Miu placed her lips to Maki's. Maki's eyes bugged out again, and then seemed to glaze over when she pulled away.

"You don't have to say it, Ma-kun," Miu said, smiling ominously, "Because in just a few minutes, we're finding a nice, secluded place to ourselves and we're having a nice, long talk about everything you've been hiding since you got here."

"I hope you don't mind us gate crashing, because I'd like an explanation about everything he just did also," Kengo said, his face retaining its nigh-eternal stoic straight stare.

Maki grimaced, and then said, "Gen-kun… Would I be too late in taking you up on your offer from before? About touring your hideout?"

_**~INTERLUDE FOURZE 1-COMPLETE~**_

Hope you guys enjoyed that. Chapter two to come after the Kiva Arc. ^_^ R&R, REVIEWS CONTAINING CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ARE WELCOME! And please, PLEASE leave a review! I REALLY need to know how I'm doing!

*Yes, I made a Might Gai reference. NO ONE ELSE HAS YET!

*For those unfamiliar with the Naruto: Shippuden series, "Nagareboshi" is the first ending theme, sung by the band "Home Made Kazoku", and translates to "Shooting Star".

*For those unfamiliar with this series (in which case, why would you be reading this?), the phrase "UCHU KITAA" is roughly translated as "Space is Here", "Space is Awesome", or "Space, HELL YEAH!", as well as a number of other things. The second option is usually used in the episode subs.


	3. KUUGA WORLD1: DROWNING WORLD

[A/N] After a long period of planning, I am pleased to present the first part of the Kuuga Arc! ^_^ Enjoy! HYAZUU~!

_**=KAMEN RIDER DECADE: GEKIJOBAN=**_

_**=GAIA AFTERSHOCK=**_

CHAPTER 2: DROWNING WORLD

Tsukasa stepped through the doors of the Hikari Studio into a new world, an immediately recognized that something was wrong. For one thing, the first step he took was into a pool of water up to his ankle.

"What on earth?" Tsukasa asked himself, stepping back into the building. Standing in the door frame, Tsukasa surveyed the area and found it almost devoid of the water. He looked up in the sky. He squinted against the harsh sunlight, his eyes going from disbelief to worry.

"There's not a cloud in the sky… but it looks like it's been raining steadily for a month!" Tsukasa said, looking from one end of the horizon to the other. And indeed, there wasn't even a HINT of a cloud in the sky; nothing but the sight of an endless blue expanse met Tsukasa's eyes.

It was then that he heard a voice in his head, saying, _**'You can use my powers on your own also, Tsukasa… you are my chosen. Use the power of Light to edge the water aside.'**_ Tsukasa nodded.

"Got it, HaShiro-san…" Tsukasa said, before extending a hand outward. Focusing a bit, he smirked as the water began to part in a neat path before him. He stepped out, lowering his hand to his side, but holding his focus steady. The water continued to part before him as he travelled, looking as best he could for Yuusuke. He decided to search as far as he could for the day and go back, and as if responding to his determination, the water spread away from him in a serpentine fashion, slipping down a drainpipe nearby.

Nodding, Tsukasa released his focus and looked around. He smiled when he found the Machine Decader, his trusted motorcycle, parked outside of the Studio and walked over. He quickly hopped atop the bike's seat and started it up, tearing off like a shot.

The search took all day, as he'd predicted, but he didn't catch hide or hair of Yuusuke anywhere. It was only as he was approaching the studio that a massive explosive rocked the side of Mount Hiroki, followed by an almost feral roar.

Tsukasa knew that voice anywhere…

"YUUSUKE!" He shouted, turning around and following the roars and screams of pain as they tore through the air like sharp claws. Eventually the noises stopped coming and Tsukasa stopped, waiting. He knew Yuusuke well enough; the boy didn't want to be found, but he'd unknowingly leave a hint as to his whereabouts.

Sure enough, several more screams of pain rent the air, alerting Tsukasa. He took off again, now following a trail of smoke rising from half-way up the mountain to his right.

As soon as he reached the site, he stopped and got off his bike, removed his helmet and looked around. The first thing his foot touched was wet soil and drenched vegetation. Across the way, about five feet outside of the entrance to a cave was a roaring fire. Tsukasa found this odd; aside from himself, there was no one else around.

"What on earth happened here?" Tsukasa asked himself aloud, not expecting anyone to be around.

"I HAPPENED."

Tsukasa jumped in place and whipped around to look in the eyes of his friend Yuusuke Onodera… who seemed worse for wear than any monster either had ever defeated. The first thing Tsukasa noticed was that Yuusuke's Arcle Buckle was present on his waist, wrapped around soaked clothing. Tsukasa looked his friend up and down, noticing that every visible area of his friend's appearance was done-drenched with water… except his face, despite the fact that his hair was matted to his head and dripping water.

Upon closer look, Tsukasa realized that Yuusuke's brown eyes were slowly turning a brighter shade… and bore a single teal ring toward the pupils.

"What do you mean, YOU happened, Yuusuke?" Tsukasa asked.

"Before I answer that… How are you even here? I checked your pulse before I was defeated by that electric frog-thing… You were dead. You shouldn't be alive!" Yuusuke said, bringing his hands to his sides and preparing to transform. Tsukasa pulled out the Decadriver and placed it on the ground.

"Yuusuke, think about this. I'm here to HELP you, not hurt you!" Tsukasa said, backing up a couple steps. Yuusuke stood still a moment, contemplating Tsukasa's words.

"I'll put it another way," Tsukasa said, seeing that Yuusuke still didn't believe him, "You're right; by all rights and the laws of science and nature, I should REALLY be dead. However, my reason for still being here is one that you may find to be no more than a bunch of made-up garbage." Yuusuke sat down, dismissed the Arcle and smiled.

"I'm ready to listen. Tell me, and I'll give you my own story…" Yuusuke said. Tsukasa smiled and stepped back toward the Decadriver and placed it into his pocket.

Taking a seat, Tsukasa told Yuusuke the entire story of his resurrection and his new mission… as well as what had happened to Natsumi after Yuusuke had been dispatched. Yuusuke's eyes widened in horror when Tsukasa told him what would happen to Natsumi if Tsukasa failed his mission.

"That's… We have to stop it! Why are we just sitting around?" Yuusuke asked in outrage as he shot to his feet. He stopped seconds later and cringed, trying to turn away from Tsukasa. Tsukasa walked over to Yuusuke, asking what was wrong, and grabbed the boy's arm. When Yuusuke did turn around, he actually rounded on Tsukasa, showing his friend his eyes… which had been almost entirely engulfed by the teal pupil rings.

Yuusuke's voice came out as a course, rasping growl as ONLY his left hand reached for his waist, summoning the Arcle. Tsukasa noticed that the thing now took on a more aquatic appearance, having an almost wave-like effect that started at the Amadam in the center of the buckle and extended out to the sides before wrapping back to "crash" on the Amadam.

Tsukasa backed up a good two feet before getting his own driver out of his pocket and quickly activating it. With less than a second's reaction time, Tsukasa slipped his "Decade" card into the driver and closed it with a cry of "HENSHIN!", turning into Decade.

"YUUSUKE, SNAP OUT OF IT!" Tsukasa shouted, watching as Yuusuke transitioned into his Kuuga armor… without the traditional Rider call. The first thing Tsukasa noticed was that the armor was similar in nature to his normal Ultimate Form armor… only less aggressive in appearance, and colored teal with green accents. The lenses on the helmet flashed yellow for a second before becoming black with a single ring of teal in the center.

'_His elemental powers are taking over?'_ Tsukasa thought to himself, ducking under a powerful swing of Kuuga's arm that could have knocked him off his feet. Tsukasa jumped back a few more feet, trying his hardest to find stable footing on the edge of the mountain-side.

"_**Tsukasa,"**_ Tsukasa heard in his head, _**"You still have a good deal of electrical energy in your body from that shock before. You can use it to temporarily assume your Electric Form, but not for more than ninety seconds; after that, you'll have to either return to your default Decade form or swap into my powers to sustain yourself."**_ Tsukasa nodded.

Thinking, he asked, _'How do I do that, HaShiro-san?'_

"_**The same way you controlled the water, Tsukasa…"**_ HaShiro replied, _**"Focus on drawing out that residual charge and focus it into your driver. It will immediately recognize your intent and transform your body."**_

Tsukasa nodded and waited for the right moment. As Kuuga ran at him again, both arms cocked for a pair of hammer punches aimed at his stomach, Tsukasa prepared, giving away no hints of his intentions. Tsukasa jumped into the air and focused hard, summoning up the electricity in his body and forcing it into his belt. The excess charge immediately cascaded through his form, transforming Tsukasa into his yet unknown electric form.

Tsukasa landed behind Kuuga and pointed two fingers at his back like a gun, with his thumb upright to act as a sight. As Kuuga spun around to face Tsukasa and run at him, Tsukasa looked away, knowing full well what was about to happen.

"Gomen nasai… Yuusuke…" Tsukasa said as he lowered his thumb to his fingers, launching a concentrated blast of charge into Kuuga's chest, forcing him off his feet and onto his back on the ground, rolling around in pain.

Tsukasa ran over and planted his hands on Kuuga's chest, both crackling with electric charge. With little more than a sigh, he forced the charge through his hands into Kuuga's armor, delivering a weak, two-handed charge that electrocuted the rider enough to revert him to human form. Tsukasa returned to his own human form, slowly reaching down to open Yuusuke's eyes; they'd returned to their normal brown, but the teal rings were now no more than thin circles around his pupils, almost invisible.

Tsukasa shook Yuusuke to wake him, but nothing happened. Instead of simply leaving his friend, Tsukasa picked him up and brought him back into the cave, willing the fire away by use of his Light.

~LATER…~

Yuusuke's eyes slammed open as he shot awake, screaming in a cold sweat. He turned his head wildly, looking for possible threats… and finding Tsukasa watching him from a rock several feet away. He looked down quickly to find himself against a stone wall; they were back in the cave.

"W-what happened?" The boy asked. Tsukasa nodded; he couldn't remember much.

"I had a chat with the spirit that brought me back while you were out," Tsukasa said, "and it appears you have what's called "Amplified Elemental Attunement", where your chosen element is EXTREMELY highly aligned with your soul. In your case, it spawned a defensive alter-ego in your brain that will only go away and grant you full use of your new powers if you defeat it in your mind. The only way to do this… can only be found and performed by you. I can't give you any hints, and I'm not allowed to find out anything about it."

"That… that's interesting, and very good to know," Yuusuke said nervously, "But it doesn't answer my question. What happened?" Tsukasa nodded.

"Had you let me finish," Tsukasa replied, sounding annoyed, "You had a brief fight against your alter-ego and lost. It took over and attacked me with your new abilities… and lost. I shocked it twice and knocked both of you out cold. I tried to wake you, but nothing happened, so I brought you in here. I've been holding off the kaijin as Decade for a couple hours now… They look like elemental Grongi… what the hell's been going on?" Yuusuke nodded.

Over the next half hour, he told Tsukasa what had happened since the run-in with Electron Toad. Over the few days he'd been back, which had been no more than the few hours Tsukasa had been unconscious, he'd rapidly developed the powers of water, which had caused him to seclude himself away. He'd been lauded as the Hero of his world after his return, only for the citizens of the city to cast him out and shun him when his powers brought down the rain in greater amounts than they'd ever had, and left flooded streets and walkways.

That had been only two days ago. Since then, he'd had to hunt for food, clean water and shelter. He'd found the cave first, and had been able to find an easy source of food and water without the need to hunt; fish and river water, when boiled, wasn't that bad of a diet for a hermit. The only thing keeping Yuusuke on his toes was the constant threat of what he'd dubbed "Super Grongi". These looked like the originals, but weren't bound by gameplay and rules anymore; they killed whoever they pleased because they pleased with no real rhyme or reason besides. The police station had been having a hard time of things, if what the short-wave radio Yuusuke had pilfered from a police cruiser was any indication.

"It's been the same ones, too…" Yuusuke said, "It never seems to change much. I JUST settle down for a nap and they come back… I haven't had any sleep in a day… Thanks for keeping watch and letting me sleep…"Tsukasa nodded.

"Why wouldn't I look out for a friend? If I left you to the wolves, I wouldn't be a real friend, would I?" Tsukasa said, smiling at his friend.

Yuusuke nodded. Moments later, his head seemed to loll off to the side, and in the blink of an eye, Yuusuke had lost consciousness, slumped over against the wall in a deep sleep. Tsukasa smiled a bit; it hadn't been that long, but Yuusuke was probably really tired…

It was then that Tsukasa noticed something was wrong with the cave's layout. He looked around quickly and discovered a thick wall of distorted air, floating slowly towards him from Yuusuke's position. He stayed put, his hand on the Decadriver. He watched as the wall dissipated, revealing two armored figures standing next to Yuusuke's sleeping form.

Tsukasa stared at both for a few seconds each, taking in the subtler details. The figure on the left, despite the way they stood, was obviously female. It didn't matter that she stood like a man… her figure and the placement of her armor told a very different story. Well… that and the fact that her left hand was placed on her left hip, which was cocked to her left side, which caused her to stand at an angle. Visually, her armor bore no signs of wekness and her stance alone screamed that she believed herself to be the greatest ever, but despite that arrogance, she showed no openings.

Only one word came to mind when Tsukasa looked her up and down:

LEGEND.

The other, however, was as male as one could get. There were, however, no bulging muscles, regardless of his suit, which told Tsukasa that just like most other Riders, this one was moderately strong without the armor. The suit itself was a blinding shade of canary yellow with a design similar to his Decade Armor… the only visible difference, besides the color, was the way the card-like protrusions in the armor seemed to be exploding out of the armor a random design, with two large black protrusions extending out like claws over each of his shoulders, while five more extended from the base of his neck across the remainder of his torso. Two protrusions on each side extended to the baseline of his chest armor, while one more extended from the center of his throat to the center of his chest, between the shoulder extensions.

His helmet especially looked like a rather violent explosion had taken place, originating from just about the tip of the nose and expanding outward, with the thickest points ending away from the helmet itself. At the tip of the center card was his Signal Pointer, which seemed to blink a shade of lime green, while his eye plates were a shade of royal purple. On his left side, just below his shoulder extensions, was a strange, crown-like symbol, and in the opposite hand was an extremely dangerous-looking sword.

Aside from all this, he looked almost exactly like Decade, which led Tsukasa to his final conclusion: This was DeFide.

"Legend and DeFide, I assume?" Tsukasa asked, not too surprised, "I was wondering when you two would show up." DeFide looked like he was about to step up and speak, but Legend extended a hand outward to stop him, choosing to walk over herself.

"Indeed, Kadoya Tsukasa-san," Legend said, "I am Legend. This is my associate, DeFide. We're here on behalf of-"

"-Your master DiLord, I know. You want my answer on whether or not I'll join you," Tsukasa said, cutting the female Rider off guard with his sudden interruption. DeFide chuckled quietly while Tsukasa tried to read the emotional state of his addressor from his own. From the way her head was subtly shaking and her left hand was twitching into a fist, he surmised he'd royally angered her… and that she was on the verge of destroying him.

It was to Tsukasa's surprise, however, when the female Rider turned on her heels and walked back toward her comrade, waving a hand dismissively.

"I'm leaving him in your care, Mojigata. Make sure you get the answer we want from him before you come back… and if he doesn't answer correctly… ELIMINATE BOTH OF THEM," Legend intoned before a smaller wall of warped air and space engulfed her, spinning three times in place before vanishing along with her.

Tsukasa watched DeFide as he scoffed, reached for his sword and opened a slot near the hilt. A small object, shaped like a playing card, ejected from it. The armor turned grey all over and soon, amidst a flurry of multi-colored afterimages, vanished, leaving only its wearer behind.

Tsukasa looked the boy over; he wasn't much taller than himself or Yuusuke, and didn't look much stronger than either. He wore a simple white muscle shirt with white shorts, wrist and ankle warmers, and white sneakers. He also had a pair of black shades sitting on his head, propped up in his stubble-like shaved black hair. Taking a quick look at the boy's face, and saw yellow, cat-like eyes framed two stand-alone bangs that hung down to his shoulders. He smiled to Tsukasa, who said nothing and wore as expressionless a mask as he could manage, given the circumstances.

"Heya, name's Mojigata; Mojigata Toshio," The boy said. Tsukasa stared him down.

"II don't give a flying damn about you OR your name, OR your master. I just want my friend back! GIVE ME NATSUMI BACK!" Tsukasa shouted, losing the control he'd had over his emotions for the briefest of moments. Toshio smiled.

"Not so tough, are we Tsukasa-san?" Toshio asked mockingly. His features suddenly hardened and, as he slowly approached Tsukasa, he watched his target transform into his Decade armor.

"I'm not here to fight," Toshio said, the tone of his voice level and unfaltering, "I just want to talk. I know what you're going through." Tsukasa looked the boy in the eyes from behind his green lenses.

"HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY KNOW WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH?" Tsukasa roared in rage, "YOUR STUPID THUNDERFROG STOLE MY NATSUMIKAN FROM ME! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME AT ALL!" Toshio didn't even move a finger to dodge or stop him as Tsukasa pulled out the Ridebooker in sword mode and swung it in a vertical arc to cleave the boy's head in twain.

"Really? I don't understand you at all?" Toshio intoned, his voice cracking a bit, "I doubt that highly, Tsukasa-san… CONSIDERING MY OWN SISTER WAS MEANT TO BE THE SACRIFICE FIRST."

That did it.

Tsukasa stopped JUST short of slicing the boy;s head in half like a fresh melon, his blade stopped just at the crown of Toshio's head and twitching several times in the span of ten seconds.

"W-what?"

"You heard me," Toshio said, not moving an inch, "Me and my sister were forced to come here from our world. I was imprisoned while she was readied for the Sacrifice… until three weeks ago, when the "MASTER" decided your friend Natsumi-san was a better candidate. He said we could go… then he branded me with his mark and brainwashed my sister into becoming a psychopathic, blood-thirsty sadist who loses her mind on the battlefield…" At that point, Toshio dropped to his knees, unable to continue.

Tsukasa watched as tears dripped from the boy's eyes, stunned…

THIS WAS WHAT DILORD WAS CAPABLE OF.

But what scared Tsukasa more was what the man might be capable of later on… and the thought of what else the egomaniacal man could do to those who crossed him wasn't one Tsukasa wanted in his head.

~MEANWHILE~

In a large, open room sat a single, ominous-looking throne, upon which was seated an imposing man.

The man himself wasn't that frightening in figure… but one couldn't really tell, considering that the man was obscured from view by a huge shadow, almost as if he were engulfed by a large black cloud.

He turned his attention, which, up until a moment ago had been focused on a spot on the wall, toward a small, spinning wall of distorting air and space, through which stepped a female Rider.

The man watched as the woman reached for the small, gleaming light in her helmet and pushed it gently, prompting her armor to simply fade from her body. The woman revealed was an eighth of an inch short of being six feet tall, and was built like a supermodel. Her long, flowing auburn hair was curled slightly around her forehead like a frame and fell half-way down her back.

This woman was known to her teammates as nothing more than "Legend". But here, in the presence of her master, she was known by another name.

"Ah… How did it go, Kotara-chan?" the man asked, his voice bemused.

Kotara Wakani, AKA Kamen Rider Legend, knelt on one knee with her left hand crossed to rest on the opposite shoulder in respect for her master, said, "I don't know, DiLord-sama. I left before I could get the answer. I believed that Mojigata would be a bit better suited to dealing with Kadoya-san than myself."

DiLord smiled.

"In other words, he interrupted you mid-sentence, you lost your temper, and left our comrade to deal with the fallout, correct?" he asked, smiling. She stood, her face flushing crimson.

"N-NO!" She cried indignantly, trying hard to come up with an excuse, before lowering her gaze to the floor and saying… "Yes."

"That is alright. Do whatever you wish for the day; we have many preparations left before the Sacrifice is ready. Enjoy your free time tonight," DiLord said, barely moving. Kotara nodded and turned on her heel, walking briskly out of the room toward the dining hall.

~ELSEWHERE~

In a small cell underground, a young woman sat, slumped, against the wall of her temporary "new home", as her captors had called it. She had wrapped her arms around her knees, pulling them close to her chin as she gently sobbed.

"Tsukasa… Tsukasa-kun…" she cried quietly.

And in the creeping darkness of that cell… Natsumi Hikari cried herself to sleep for the third straight night.

_TO BE CONTINUED…_


	4. KUUGA WORLD2: WATER OF LIFE

[A/N] As part of an intended double-header, I present the second part of the Kuuga Arc! ^_^ Enjoy! HYAZUU~!

_**=KAMEN RIDER DECADE: GEKIJOBAN=**_

_**=GAIA AFTERSHOCK=**_

CHAPTER 3: WATER OF LIFE

It took Tsukasa a few minutes to help Toshio calm down and compose himself. When he did, the boy seemed to smile a bit, as if finding a faint bit of hope in his utterly hopeless situation. Tsukasa waited; he was certain he could learn a bit about his ultimate opponent from Toshio.

Finally, Toshio nodded slowly and looked Tsukasa in the eyes.

"You want me to tell you a bit about that bastard, don't you?" He asked solemnly. Tsukasa nodded.

_**~ELSEWHERE~**_

DiLord sat atop his throne, watching his remaining field agent in his crystal scepter. He frowned when Toshio referred to him as a "bastard".

"Huh…" DiLord said to himself, waving his fingers over the ball in an arcane fashion, as if casting a spell.

_**~ELSEWHERE~**_

Toshio was about to start talking again when he felt a pull on his mind. He shook visibly, trying to shake off the effect, but with an ever increasing lack of effect. Tsukasa watched as Toshio grabbed his face with his fingers and pulled down, as if trying to pull the skin off his skull… and then just stopped. That's all… he didn't slowly drop his hands to his sides or walk forward… he just stopped.

Suddenly, he looked at Tsukasa through his fingers, and Tsukasa backed up a few spaces; the boy's eyes had turned blood red, and the slit pupils he sported had turned gold.

"**UNFORTUNATELY FOR YOU… I'M NOT TELLING~!"** Toshio said in a sing-song voice while taking out a single card. He reached for the access slot on his sword and slid it down. Tsukasa activated his own buckle out of reflex and watched as Toshio stood straight up, holding his sword defensively in front of him at an angle, the blade's tip resting just over his left shoulder. The boy slid his card into the open slot and slid it shut. The sword blinked yellow once.

"_**KAMEN RIDE…"**_

With a demented grin and a look of determination, Toshio and Tsukasa shouted the exact same word…

"HENSHIN!"

"_**DECADE!"**_

"_**DEFIDE!"**_

Tsukasa's armor formed and his Signal Pointer flashed a faint yellow and his eyes soon peered through green-tinted lenses. It was through these lenses that Tsukasa watched his soon-to-be opponent's transformation.

The first thing Tsukasa noticed was that the boy had summoned afterimages of his armor, as had Tsukasa, but instead of being the multicolored ones Tsukasa had called, Toshio's were all a striking shade of canary yellow, and they all seemed to stack on top of him instead of fusing to his body. The bars that formed the design on his chest formed, extending his armor across his body.

The part that startled Tsukasa, though, was the helmet; the cards that formed the pattern on his face were twice as long as they should have been.

Well, that and the fact that there were a total of eight of them, with two slamming into the helmet to form a standard "X", while the rest sailed into place and formed the exploding pattern. It was with a slash of his sword, which readied the Access Slot on the blade, and a flash of the armor's lime-green Signal Pointer. The Rider known as DeFide slid his hand along the sharp edge of the blade and twitched his head violently to one side.

"Toshio-san, SNAP OUT OF IT! I KNOW THIS ISN'T YOU!" Tsukasa shouted, dodging at JUST the right moment to avoid being chopped into mincemeat. His attacker kept up the assault, swinging in short, direct arcs that kept Tsukasa in constant motion. He could barely even get his own into play, as he barely had enough time to switch actions.

Eventually, Tsukasa found himself with his back against the wall and dodged a particularly violent swing that lodged DeFide's weapon in the cave's wall. Tsukasa ducked away, pulling out the RideBooker and switching it to Sword Mode. He held his weapon ready, quickly sliding a card out of the open book and into his buckle.

"_**ATTACK RIDE: SLASH!"**_

Without warning, Tsukasa swung his weapon down, catching his assailant across the back. The attack held enough force to drop DeFide to his knees. Tsukasa backed off, holding his sword ready for a block. When DeFide manage to pull his blade from the wall, he swung wide, holding the blade toward the ground. Tsukasa, being a veteran of battle, hopped over the blade as it travelled past his legs and brought his own down in a quick strike. DeFide staggered back from the force of the hit. Tsukasa stood ready, sword in hand as his side.

DeFide roared and rushed in, going for a lunging stab. Tsukasa was ready; ducking under the blade, he swung his own in an upward arc that caught DeFide's blade in a parrying blow and sliced his arm at the same time. Tsukasa regained his stance a second later, waiting to see what would happen next.

Sure enough, DeFide's anger was getting the better of him. He turned around, ready to bring his blade down on Tsukasa's head once more… but stopped midstroke, twitching madly all the way from his waist to his neck. Is arms stopped moving, save for minute spasms.

Tsukasa couldn't understand this… until he caught sight of the crown-shaped marking on DeFide's armor. One moment it was there, the next it wasn't. It began to flicker in and out of being, finally settling on vanishing altogether. Tsukasa took a step back, waiting.

"D-Damn… him…" Toshio's voice hissed through his helmet as he lowered his arms and ejected his card from the sword. Within a second, he'd reversed the transformation and stood before Tsukasa's armored form as a human once again. Tsukasa did the same.

"I'm sorry I attacked you, Kadoya-san…" Toshio said. Tsukasa shook his head.

"Don't bother apologizing; you weren't yourself. I understand… It was the same with me when I led Dai-Shocker those times…" Tsukasa said musingly, almost as if he were trying to convince himself. Toshio nodded.

"I'll go back and tell the "master" that you're undecided still. He'll probably send out another two people in the next world to follow up, and on and on like that until he either tires of seeking your aide… or you agree," Toshio stated, holding out a hand to the air and forming a portal of distorted space, "I just hope you DON'T agree. It'd be sad to have to add YOU to my list…" With that, Toshio Mojigata stepped through the portal to nowhere, vanishing from sight as if no more than a specter.

Tsukasa looked around to see Yuusuke still sound asleep against the wall. However, something seemed … odd.

For one thing, Yuusuke had born a peaceful expression before the arrival of Legend and DeFide. Now, he looked like he was in pain… a lot of it. And he was sweating profusely.

And… there was blood trickling down the side of his mouth that hadn't been there before.

Tsukasa panicked and set about finding something to help his friend, all the while praying Yuusuke would pull through.

What he didn't know was that Yuusuke wasn't sleeping. He wasn't even daydreaming.

He had started his battle… and there was little Tsukasa could do to help him now.

_**~WITH YUUSUKE~**_

_Yuusuke floated along, having found himself in a strange place only moments after passing out under Tsukasa's watch. He couldn't help but wonder what was going on now…_

_His thoughts were forced to the back of his mind as a powerful jet of water struck him in the face, making him sputter. He opened his eyes and took in what little there was to see._

_Now that he actually looked carefully, he was still on Mount Hiroki… just on the opposite side of the mountain. Not only that, but everything seemed to be dead and withered. The trees, black against the crimson background of the sun setting on the horizon, looked about ready to fall from their roots on their own._

_Looking around further, he saw the city. Or, at least, what ruins remained of it. And even then, it was difficult to make out the conditions of most of the buildings when the town was submerged up to the tops of the buildings._

"_W-What happened here?" Yuusuke asked himself, staring intently at every building in turn before his eyes slammed shut; another harsh burst of water, ice-cold, struck him along the side of his face, causing him to sputter and turn in the direction of the source._

_Yuusuke found himself gazing into the eyes of an almost perfect mirror image of his own self. The only difference is that his mirror self had black sclera and teal irises, and, aside from a pair of tight-looking shorts and an opened, blue, zipper-front vest, was wearing nothing in the way of clothing. Around his mirror self were several tongues of water that resembled undulating tentacles, while a smaller vortex sat under his feet, seeming to hold him up as he floated in midair._

_Yuusuke knew it was a stupid question, considering the hard, physical evidence floating before him, but he still couldn't stop himself from asking, "Who ARE you?"_

_The figure seemed to chuckle, its voice pebbly and dark._

"_I am you, Onodera Yuusuke," the figure said, "Only better. I am the personification of your new powers." Yuusuke's eyes almost exploded from his head._

"_S-so… You're the one who did this to the city?" Yuusuke asked. His mirror image heaved a deep, breathy laugh and bent at the waist, his eyes rife with disbelief while squinted almost completely shut._

"_Oh no… YOU DID," the Mirror Yuusuke said, smiling wickedly as Yuusuke's face twisted into a look of denial and rage._

"_I … I COULDN'T HAVE!" Yuusuke bellowed, his anger boiling over. He transformed without a second thought and was just about to strike his mirror image in the face with a straight punch… _

_But his fist wouldn't budge._

_When he thought about it, he couldn't move any part of his body, no matter how hard he struggled to. In fact, he hadn't even transformed; he'd gone to make the motions, but had been stopped before he could even summon the Arcle. He didn't understand this at all._

"_I bet you're wondering why you can't move?" Mirror Yusuke said, smirking evilly. _

"_I'll tell you: It's part of your powers. Using the Power of Water, you can control not only water until it either evaporates into air or freezes into ice, but also control the fluids within ANY living organism. Where do you think most of the fluid in that pool out there came from?" A wicked, sadistic glint shone in Mirror Yuusuke's eyes, and, as Yuusuke looked out to the flooded city once more, he realized what his mirror self meant._

_Floating in the roof-high flood waters were the bodies of every one of the city's citizens, and in varying states of decomposition. However, they weren't all whole… some seemed to be… missing pieces here and there…_

_Mirror Yuusuke laughed maniacally as a look of grief and pain swept over Yuusuke's face._

"_IT WAS SO MUCH FUN WATCHING YOU MAKE THOSE POOR, INNOCENT PEOPLE GO BOOM FROM WITHIN!" Mirror Yuusuke cackled, bending backward at the waist in hysterical laughter. Yuusuke looked down at the ground beneath his feet and saw a single flower._

_GROWING._

_A single flower, underneath his foot, was growing. He soon understood why: the waters within his now free-falling tears were providing instant nutrient boosts in the soil._

_That's when it hit him._

_Exerting his own will, he managed to slip through his mirror self's liquid control by contorting that link and turning it on its user. Thus, when his Mirror Image seemed to buckle, his arms shooting out to his sides and dislocating at every single joint, Yuusuke smirked and forced a little more focus into his control. The same thing happened to his Mirror Image's legs; Yuusuke watched as the Mirror Yuusuke's pelvis straightened and frowned when he heard multiple crunching sounds as each hip, knee, and ankle joint dislocated. Even as the Mirror Yuusuke's floating water left him and moved to swirl around the real Yuusuke, the fake continued to float in the air, held in place by Yuusuke's control._

"_I-IMPOSSIBLE!" The Mirror Yuusuke shouted in outrage, "HOW COULD YOU HAVE FIGURED IT OUT THIS QUICKLY? YOU'RE WEAK! YOU'RE NOTHING! **NOTHING!**" Yuusuke shook his head. He then stepped back, revealing not only the drying stream of tears on his left cheek… but also the budding flower on the ground. Mirror Yuusuke stared at the flower in disbelief._

"_I suspected something was off when I saw that flower," Yuusuke said, smiling," You say **I** did this to the city… but it was my own tears that made this little flower grow. If I did both, then that means my powers are two-fold… and that YOU control the darker half, the part that surfaces when there is a lack of proper control. You're the destructive side of my powers… and I aim to make all you are a part of ME."_

_With that, Yuusuke held his hand out, his palm flat and his fingers spread like a fan, with his palm facing his mirror self. He watched as Mirror Yuusuke struggled against him, but to no avail; in moments, something began to jab at the mirror copy's chest, right behind the center of its ribcage. Turning his palm toward himself calmly, Yuusuke pulled his hand toward his own chest and slowly curled his fingers into a fist. He watched as the Mirror Yuusuke screamed in pain as whatever was jabbing and forcing at his ribcage suddenly exploded from it; it was a small, teal-blue crystal that resembled a raindrop with a dent toward the tip; a clown's tear-drop tattoo._

_He walked toward his Mirror Self, reaching out his hand to grab the small object, listening vaguely to his other self's dry pants and heaves of air. Grabbing it, Yuusuke pulled it away from the Mirror Yuusuke and placed it against his heart, instantly absorbing it in a flash of blue light. He watched as the Mirror Yuusuke's eyes dulled and glazed over, gaining a listless, vacant stare as his head dropped to stare blankly at the ground. Releasing his control over the Mirror Copy's body, he watched, almost bored, as the body fell from where it had been and tumbled like a ragdoll down the side of the mountain. He touched his face and noticed a bit blood on his fingers. He smiled; moments from now, he wouldn't have to worry about that._

_**~BACK WITH TSUKASA~**_

Tsukasa had laid Yuusuke on the ground on his back. He pressed a cold wet cloth against his friend's forehead, hoping the cool sensation would help the fever he was feeling pass. He was so focused that he didn't feel the cloth dry out… but he certainly noticed as the brown-haired boy sat up and grabbed his hands.

Yuusuke smiled and said, "Watching over your friends again? Will you EVER stop changing, Tsukasa-san?" Tsukasa smiled back.

"Good to have you back, Yuusuke. I don't know if I was any real help, but… I did what I had to do," Tsukasa said. Yuusuke smiled again.

"All I know… Whoever comes after us is going to be in for a MAJOR case of a pain in the neck!" Yuusuke said. Tsukasa didn't understand, but, as the sun came up and illuminated the dull, stony walls of the cave, he saw a determined look in Yuusuke's eyes that made him feel just a little more at ease.

'_Soon,'_ Tsukasa thought, _'I'll understand. Wait for me, Natsumi… I'm coming to get you!'_

_**~DILORD'S CASTLE~**_

Toshio walked into the dining hall and grabbed a Granny Smith apple from the fruit table. Without so much as a word to anyone sitting at the table, he walked right back out, taking a nice, deep chunk out of the fruit's side with one chomp.

Kotara watched him leave, a scowl on her face. She let out a low growl and returned to focusing on her slice of lasagna.

It had never been a point of concern for her on how they came to have delicacies from nations outside of Japan, given that their world was connected to the others solely through their master's powers. Kotara was just pleased that she could enjoy her favorite dish in peace, without the sword-wielding Rider around to mutter to himself and stir up dust and debris.

'_For once, I can thank him for something…'_ Kotara thought as she closed her eyes with a small smile. She opened them to find a gloved hand over her plate, lunging down. Her eyes widened comically as the hand plunged into her dish and scooped up a large handful of the meat-and-cheese-filled sauce-covered pasta and pulled it out of her vision. She turned when she heard the sound of heavy, metal-plated boots retreating slowly from the room and saw a familiar head of shaved black hair.

Her peace destroyed, she grabbed the edge of the table and moved forward, lifting upward and flipping the table with a scream of rage.

"DAMN YOU TO HELL, GAOH! THAT WAS THE LAST PIECE UNTIL NEXT WEEK!" She screamed, storming toward the door. As she passed the copper-armored man, she reached over and grabbed his hand, forcing it up and into his face, splattering the messy glop of food all over him.

She stormed off with a scream of "I HOPE YOU CHOKE ON IT!", leaving everyone in the room to stare after her. How anyone could be attached to FOOD like that, they would never understand.

_**~ELSEWHERE~**_

Natsumi Hikari awoke, resting her back against her cell wall as she stretched with a depressed sigh.

"So they got you too, huh?" came a voice she recognized all too well as her own.

This scared her though… why was her other persona from the Negative World here?

"Natsumi-san? Why are you here?" Natsumi asked her other self. All she got in reply was a soft chuckle… followed by a series of light breaths signaling that the girl had fallen asleep.

Natsumi shook her head and leaned against the wall, resting her head against her chest as she fell asleep again.

_**~ELSEWHERE~**_

A young man sat alone in a small room that seemed to shift between the many colors of the visible spectrum, his left hand on a buckle on his waist. He pulled the buckle off his waist and turned it over, ignoring the open slots on the front to look at a gauge on the back. A small red line just barely scraped past the bottom of the gauge.

"_Not even five percent power yet?"_ he asked aloud, chuckling a bit.

"_That's fine… it shouldn't be much longer anyways… even at twenty-five percent power I can put up a decent fight…"_ he mused, resting his head against the wall and falling asleep… deep into a nightmare-riddled sleep.

For he knew instinctively that every moment he remained in this pocket dimension created to trap him by DiLord was one more moment the Kaijin in his world was using to exterminate the human race… and they'd probably start with his precious people.

"_Everyone…"_ he muttered in his sleep, _"Please… hold on just a little bit longer…"_

_TO BE CONTINUED…_


	5. KUUGA WORLD3: FLOOD TRUTH

[A/N] Turning this into a Triple-Header, so I present the third and final part of the Kuuga Arc! ^_^ Enjoy! HYAZUU~!

_**=KAMEN RIDER DECADE: GEKIJOBAN=**_

_**=GAIA AFTERSHOCK=**_

**CHAPTER 4: FLOOD TRUTH**

Tsukasa and Yuusuke waited until midday to set out towards civilization and get some food. Yuusuke had been slowly practicing his control during the day, slowly becoming more and more proficient. By the time they got to the Hikari Studio, the streets had been nearly cleared of the water.

The two stepped inside and found themselves treated to the sound of a TV report focusing in on a group of Super Grongi holding citizens hostage in a warehouse in the industrial district.

The strange part was that the kaijin were no longer speaking in their own tongue… they were speaking fluent Japanese, and only ever repeated the same demands:

"**GIVE US KUUGA; GIVE US DECADE!"**

Tsukasa and Yuusuke didn't even wait two seconds to check in with old Eijiro, who'd been napping in the armchair in front of the TV, a teacup of coffee sitting on a saucer that was balanced perfectly on his right knee.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind them, however, the elderly man shot awake, barely catching the teacup and saucer in a diving save that, as he landed, he concluded MUST have injured one of his ribs.

"Tsukasa-kun? Are you there?" Eijiro asked, shaking his head when he got no answer.

Deciding he must have been imagining things, he sat back on the chair and set the cup and saucer on the table beside him, then settled in for another nap… a nap fraught with the same nightmare he'd had since the incident… a nightmare where he was forced to watch as Natsumi, his beloved granddaughter, was hung by her wrists over a pool of lava… only to be shortly after consumed from beneath by a large, cavernous maw filled with row upon row or razor-sharp teeth…

It took Yuusuke and Tsukasa less than ten minutes to reach their destination, sliding their motorcycles to a halt and dismounting into a swift run. While Tsukasa took out the Decadriver and placed it on his waist, Yuusuke placed his hands, curved like a pair of parentheses, around his waist, summoning the Arcle.

Tsukasa and Yuusuke wasted little extra time in their transformations, both assuming their basic forms, and Yuusuke assuming Ultimate Form seconds later. They tore past the police officers and their waste of concrete that they called a barrier… didn't they know these Grongi didn't care about simplistic concrete blockades like these? Without so much as a roar of anger in warning, they burst through the group of Super Grongi like they were wet paper and began forcing them away from their hostages, who immediately took the hint and took off for safety. Tsukasa and Yuusuke nodded to each other, smiling behind their helmets. They gave each other no more than a nod of understanding before getting to work.

Tsukasa looked ahead toward the swarm of kaijin, only to see them bowing aside to allow a thin curtain of distorted air and space to pass between them. When the curtain vanished, the form of Legend stood before him, head bowed as if pondering something.

"You side with Kuuga, Gaia?" Legend said aloud, raising her head to stare at Tsukasa from behind her lenses. Tsukasa didn't even answer; he removed from the RiderBooker a single card and slotted it into his buckle, vanishing a second later as the buckle announced:

"**ATTACK RIDE: CLOCK UP!"**

Legend almost staggered back as Tsukasa struck her armored form from multiple angles faster than she could register. She hit the ground on one knee, and barely got back on her feet before several more lightning-fast strike glanced across her armor, sending her flying back. Tsukasa appeared in place four yards away, bent in a ready position to continue fighting. However, as she struggled to her knees, Legend looked to Tsukasa and screamed.

"YOU DARE ATTACK A WOMAN? WHAT IS YOUR DEAL, KADOYA TSUKASA? WHO EVER TOLD YOU IT WAS ALRIGHT TO DO THAT? HAVE YOU NO HONOR?" Legend shouted. Seconds later, she realized she should have just kept quiet.

Without warning, Tsukasa's armor took on a strange change. The magenta tint in his suit took on a lighter shade, his lenses twisted up toward his forehead and then down between his eyes, as well as a change in color from green to purple. The major warning, though, wasn't the fact that his Signal Pointer changed from yellow to violet…

It was the fact that he seemed to close the distance between them AND find the ability to grab her by her armored neck and hoist her into the air.

When next he spoke, Tsukasa's normally laid-back voice rang with a tone that screamed of anger and disgust.

"_HOW __**DARE**__ YOU LECTURE __**ME**__ ABOUT HONOR, YOU WHO ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A PAWN FOR THAT BASTARD?"_ Tsukasa shouted back, his voice twisting into an almost demonic tone now, _"YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS TOOK ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS IN THIS WORLD, AND YOU INTEND TO USE HER AS A SACRIFICE TO A DARK GOD! YOU PLAN TO __**KILL MY BEST FRIEND**__ FOR THE SAKE OF SOME STUPID PLAN FOR WORLD DOMINATION! DO YOU REALIZE JUST HOW LITTLE SENSE YOU'RE MAKING?"_

At this point, Legend watched as Tsukasa's armor began to contort and change profoundly. Every area that had once been white and magenta became pitch-black; the card-like extensions on his shoulders became sharper, almost like horns; his lenses turned from purple to a blackened gold, while the Signal Pointer turned crimson. His lenses also gained horn-like protrusions toward the tops, extending part-way off the helmet. A pair of horizontal, crimson curves, small and close together like the beginnings of a large explosion on the horizon, appeared in each of his lenses, spanning the length of each.

As the form finished its mutation, a small pair of devil-like wings and a small, whip-like tail erupted from his shoulders and a spot just above his rear. The tail split in two and both gained a spiked barb on the end. Two large horns erupted from his helmet, right overtop each lens. The Signal Pointer flashed crimson three times and then once more with his lenses before settling down.

Yuusuke, who had been in the middle of batting aside a Super Grongi with no more than a back-handed punch, shuddered and took a few steps back when a powerful shockwave of pure, evil rage ripped into and through him, causing him to look in Tsukasa's direction. What he saw scared him.

"TSUKASA-KUN, STOP!" Yuusuke shouted, delivering a single roundhouse kick to another Super Grongi's temple before tearing off to stop Tsukasa from killing the rider in his grip. He stopped moments later, however, when Tsukasa dropped her and kicked her once in the side, causing the fmale rider to roll several feet away from him.

Tsukasa unleashed a single, devilish roar as his belt announced his newest form:

"**OVERRIDE: AFTERSHROUD!"**

One more pulse of darkness erupted from Tsukasa's form before he strolled leisurely over toward the object of his carnal rage. He squatted down on both legs just long enough to grab Legend by her throat again, then lift up in a leap and throw her down hard into the ground. All Legend had time to do was gasp in pain before a scream tore through her helmet. Tsukasa had landed on the ground next to her and grabbed her left shoulder in one hand… the only problem for her was that his hand was constantly squeezing her shoulder tighter and tighter.

It was almost as if her shoulder was inside a vice-grip, and someone just kept cranking the vice further and further closed, even after it had gotten tight enough to hold snugly. A series of cracks was followed by the sound of something in her shoulder breaking, and she screamed again.

"TSUKASA-KUN, STOP IT NOW!" Yuusuke shouted, rushing forward again and catching Tsukasa around the neck with both arms to hold him back. Yuusuke soon discovered the cause of Tsukasa's mutation.

In one breath, Tsukasa, his voice twisted int a demonic tone once more, screamed, _**"GIVE HER BACK! GIVE ME NATSUMI BACK, YOU TWISTED LITTLE BITCH!"**_ With that, Tsukasa collapsed to his knees under Yuusuke's grip and bowed his head, his entire body soon shaking uncontrollably.

Yuusuke watched as his friend soon dropped into the fetal position on his arms and knees, trying his hardest to keep his sobs silent and controlled, but to no avail.

'_Tsukasa-kun… you care about her that much?'_ Yuusuke asked in his head, _'there's no turning back now. I know the pain of losing someone I love… I'm not letting Tsukasa-kun suffer that pain!'_

By the time Yuusuke returned from his thoughts, Tsukasa's armor had reverted back to his standard Decade form, and he was still doubled over on the ground, shaking violently as he tried to get himself under control. Meanwhile, Legend had managed to get to her feet, holding her left arm by her broken shoulder, gasping in pain.

"How can you call a BEAST like him your friend, Onodera?" Legend shouted, "He hits women when he gets angry! How can he be a friend to a decent guy like you?" Yuusuke looked at Legend as if she was insane, suddenly realizing what had prompted Tsukasa's rampage.

"I see how it is…" Yuusuke said, looking at the metal-clad woman before him, "You taunt him for helping ME, then when he attacks you, you spew nonsense about him being less of a man for striking you… What you don't seem to understand is that Tsukasa is fiercely loyal to his friends… especially myself and Natsumi-san. Both of us were there when he was ejected from Dai-Shocker… it took us a while to accept him again, but we were there for him in the end."

"The same thing happened when he began killing the other Riders. At first I thought he had just lost his mind and wasn't thinking straight… but it turned out he was really saving all of us. By eliminating us all, he forced our individual worlds apart, allowing us to revive where we belonged. It was then, through a combination of all our belief in him that brought him back after Natsumi-san destroyed him."

"I hadn't realized it, what with my being all but blind to love, that Tsukasa and Natsumi were looking to start getting serious. But, before that could even get off the ground, what happens? You LUNATICS," Yuusuke shouted this word, spitting it with all the venom he could muster, "come in, kill him, and kidnap Natsumi-san and leave him that ridiculous note? "WORK WITH US AND HELP US ROAST YOUR POTENTIAL GIRLFRIEND FOR THE GOOD OF OUR GOD"? YOU REALLY THOUGHT TSUKASA-KUN WOULD GO ALONG WITH THAT?"

"All he wants is to have her back, and you won't let him have that. You instead, taunt him continuously, holding her JUST out of his reach time and again. And you have the NERVE to talk about HONOR to him after all your people have done to him? How the hell DARE _**YOU**_?" Yuusuke said, helping Tsukasa up from the ground. Tsukasa shook Yuusuke's arm off him several times, but finally relented and stood, albeit on shaking legs, to stare at the injured woman ahead.

As Legend stood there, seemingly lost for words, Yuusuke continued, "Maybe if you'd tried living as a hero, you would see that what you said to Tsukasa-kun was not only an insult, but an arrow through his heart. You want to talk about honor? Do the honorable thing and let Natsumi-san go! If you can't do that," Yuusuke stopped for a moment to gather his newfound powers around him, allowing the water around him to swirl and merge into his armor. The black and gold changed to teal and aquamarine, while his lenses changed to a bright shade of pure gold.

"…Then I highly suggest you prepare to keep your mouth SHUT, or else you'll be cursing BOTH of us while we FORCE you to take us to her BY FORCE!" Yuusuke shouted, holding out his right hand. A single tendril of water erupted from his palm and ensnared Legend around the waist, slowly wrapping up her torso until her arms were locked together.

"Tsukasa-kun is my dearest friend! No matter what comes his way, I'll be there to give him one-hundred-thousand-percent of my power and help him in every way I can! BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS WITH HONOR DO!" Yuusuke shouted, thrusting his flat-palmed hand toward the ground. Instantly, the tendril swung down, smashing Legend into the ground, causing her to scream in pain as her injured shoulder slammed into rocks and rubble. She felt herself be lifted into the air again, held still.

Yuusuke turned to Tsukasa and said, "You feeling a bit better, Tsukasa-kun?" Tsukasa nodded just in time for a set of cards to jump from the RideBooker into his vision. He grabbed them and spread them open, revealing several cards he'd never seen before. Grabbing the first of the group, Tsukasa opened the Decadriver and slotted it, then closed it. The belt came alive, announcing:

"**GEAR SHIFT RIDE: GAIA!"**

Not waiting longer than he had to, he grabbed the next of the two cards and slotted it in, closing the belt soon after. The belt once again came alive, and as the white and colored contours of his armor began to color themselves a deep shade of blue, he heard the belt announce:

"**GAIA RIDE: AFTERWAVE!"**

Soon, his shoulder armor resembled a pair of tsunamis, while small wave-like pads attached themselves to his legs. The Decadriver's display plate changed color, gaining a black background and an image of a raging blue wave within. The lenses on his helmet changed from green to a shade of aqua-blue, and, strangest of all, an ethereal wave crashed into Tsukasa from behind, shrinking toward the crown of his head and forming a sort of eye-guard above them in the shape of a wave. The Signal Pointer flashed red, and Tsukasa took a step forward.

Legend now understood what her master had meant when he said that this man had shown signs of "Gaia Alignment"; he had easily attained an elementally-attuned form, just as the Rider next to him had! And what was more… he seemed more powerful than Kuuga did now…

"Yuusuke-kun…" Tsukasa said, turning to face his friend, "Hold her for one second, alright? I want to try something. When I'm done, take care of the Grongi; I'll join you as soon as I finish her off and send her packing." Yuusuke nodded and focused his power a little more, tightening the tendril's grip on its prey. This, of course, caused Legend to groan in pain.

Looking to the remaining two cards in his hands, he took one that had a picture of Yuusuke's new form on it and deposited it in the RIdeBooker with his left hand, allowing him to slot the other with his free hand. Immediately, the water around the two male Riders swelled and crested, forming a large tsunami wave that hoisted Tsukasa off his feet. The belt once more came to life, this time announcing Legend's defeat in time with her horrified screams:

"**FINAL ATTACK RIDE: W-W-W-WAVE!"**

As the wave directed Tsukasa at his target, he did something he'd never done before… he NAMED his attack.

"GAIA DEEP BLUE CRASH!" Tsukasa shouted, extending his right foot out toward Legend's chest. The force of the impact alone broke a few ribs; it was the second portion of the attack, consisting of the wave suddenly forming a dome and spawning aquatic clones of Tsukasa from all angles that simultaneously connected with her armor when Tsukasa did that clinched it.

Legend released one final scream of pain before a massive explosion rocked the air. Tsukasa landed on the ground a good five feet away from the contact site, turning to give Yuusuke a "thumbs up". Yuusuke nodded and turned to take care of the remaining Grongi warriors.

Tsukasa turned his attention to the still moving body of Legend, who, surprisingly was still fully armored, minus a few patches of her suit and he shoulder armor, as well as a large chunk of the right side of her mask, revealing her mouth, which had curved back in a wicked sneer.

Tsukasa walked over and grabbed her by the back of the neck to angle her helmet's lenses up to face his own.

"Tell your boss that I'm not joining him; not now, not ever. However, I WILL go a little easier on him if he lets Natsumi go BEFORE I get to him; otherwise, all bets are off, and I'll DESTROY HIM," Tsukasa said, his voice dark and foreboding as he continued, "AND THAT GOES FOR YOU TOO, as well as any others who might be working for your little "Demented Theater Troupe"; anyone who gets in my way will find themselves destroyed viciously unless Natsumi is brought to me in the next world. If I don't see her and have to depart for another world, I'm coming after ALL of you… AND I'LL BE STARTING WITH YOU, FOR THAT HALF-COCKED COMMENT ABOUT HONOR. START THINKING A BIT MORE BEFORE YOU SPEAK."

He let go, allowing her head to drop back onto the ground with a loud "thud" and a gasp of pain. Seconds before he turned, he saw the image of a card spinning before his eyes, and reached out for it. He stared at the card; unlike his other cards, this one only had a barcode and an image on one side that resembled the portals she'd appeared through. HE nodded, knowing exactly what it would do before he slotted it and bent down to pick up Legend's pain-wracked body with his water powers.

"**GAIA RIDE: PORTAL!"**

With that, Tsukasa half-assedly tossed the limp body of Legend into the portal and turned around as the portal closed behind her, not caring where it led to or left her.

In a matter of seconds, he'd cleared the distance to Yuusuke's side, and in less than a minute, all hope the Grongi soldiers had of surviving and accomplishing their task was snuffed out as one more announcement of **"FINAL ATTACK RIDE: W-W-W-WAVE!"** tore through the air. The water both Riders controlled formed an impenetrable dome around the entire Grongi horde. Tsukasa then grabbed another card that flew out of the RideBooker and smiled behind his helmet as he slotted it.

"You ready Yuusuke-kun? Because this is going to be FUN!" Tsukasa said as the belt announced:

"**COMBO ATTACK RIDE: K-K-K-KUUGA/G-G-G-GAIA!"**

At once, both Riders looked each other in the eyes and nodded, jumping into the air and coming down with a single kick to the dome. However, instead of multiple copies of each appearing, the two simply vanished into the dome. The Grongi within looked around frantically until one hit the ground with a scream of pain. Another turned around and saw their foes… except they were both flying at him too fast t avoid.

The two Riders continued to appear and disappear in the waters of the dome, randomly attacking and weakening one Grongi at a time until they were all on one knee, struggling to stand. When both saw this, Tsukasa and Yuusuke appeared outside the dome and concentrated hard, aiming both hands toward the dome.

Before the Grongi could figure out what was happening, the dome began to shrink rapidly, causing all of the beasts within to suffer a painful demise as their bodies were compressed and forced to violently explode, signaling their death. Tsukasa looked over to Yuusuke as he removed the Decadriver and returned to human form. Yuusuke did the same, willing the Arcle away as the two Riders turned to leave the area. They took a nice, leisurely stroll to their motorcycles, passing many a confused police officer. As the two climbed atop their trusty machines and started them up, Yuusuke turned to the police.

"My work here is finished; I leave the safety of this city to you! I know you guys can handle this without Kuuga's aide!" He called out, giving the officer's a "thumbs up" in encouragement. As the two rode away, the officers looked at each other with a smile.

Well, all except one officer, a new addition, who removed her hat and stared after the two Riders as they ride away.

As she watched, she raised her left hand and watched as a small, cursive letter "P" appeared on her palm. As the two disappeared into the city, she let these words hang in the air around her:

"Please come back soon… SEMPAI…"

~_**LATER~**_

Tsukasa and Yuusuke sat back in the lounge area at Hikari Studio as Eijiro bustled around, fixing up a cup of coffee for both boys. Yuusuke smiled, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

"OH MAN, I've missed this!" Yuusuke said as the ederly man walked over and handed him a small cup on a saucer. Yuusuke blew into the cup a couple times before reaching it up to his lips and taking a sip.

He closed his eyes tight and sighed in relief as the hot liquid slowly seared its way down his sore throat.

"YES!" Yuusuke said, sighing once more, "THAT'S THE STUFF!" Tsukasa watched Yuusuke and chuckled. His eyes turned toward the Mural of Worlds, where Eijiro was calmly adjusting one of the chains, making sure everything was in order.

A sense of foreboding washed over Tsukasa, and moment later, he watched as his fear came true: the older man fumbled, his left hand gripping the chain hard and pulling it straight down. The chains began rolling of their own accord, and soon, a new World Mural appeared before them. It was one Tsukasa recognized easily:

A large dragon with a castle for a body was sitting in the middle of a large skyscraper, roaring into the night sky. However, there were two things different: instead of a the normal crescent moon, Kiva was bathed in the light of a BLACK full moon, rapidly transforming into something entirely different while his lenses cracked all over, allowing his dormant Fangire blood to rampage.

Tsukasa and Yuusuke stared for a while at the Mural, and then at each other. They covered their eyes in time to avoid being blinded by the flash of light that heralded their arrival in a new world.

However, instead of being met by silence or even the sound of laughter, a deafening, blood-curdling scream tore the air in twain as a fierce, animalistic roar followed, prompting another scream.

Tsukasa jumped to his feet, draining the cup dry as he went for the door. Yuusuke did the same and followed behind. In a matter of seconds, Eijiro was left alone once again.

As he sat back down and drifted off into another bout of nightmare-riddled sleep, his final words echoed through the building:

"I guess a Hero's work is never finished…"

_TO BE CONTINUED…_

Last part finished! ^_^ Hope you liked it!

Be on the look-out for another new piece coming as a one-shot soon after the posting of these three: It's the first of its kind, PERIOD, and a strange mix. I hope this does better than Ehrlock Shemos did…


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